“For you, Mabel.

Only for you.”

She tried to say something more.

Her lips moved, and no sound came, and I watched her spend her final strength reaching for words that would not come.

And then her hand, which had been holding mine, went soft and heavy all at once.

And her chest, which I had watched rise and fall for twelve years, through four thousand nights, rose once more, and settled, and did not rise again.

The world came down around me without a sound.