The Lost Story

by Meg Shaffer

“Was I hideous enough?” she asked as she stood up. “Disgusting.”

“It’s called ‘searching behavior,’ ” he said. “People who lose someone will find themselves walking for miles or driving for hours…Lots of theories on why. I think it’s guilt. Misplaced usually. We think we should have been able to stop it, but we can’t. Even after they’re gone, your body keeps trying to do something to help even though you can’t.”

“At the vet clinic, we always said, ‘You can’t save them all, but today we will save one.’ Kept you going on the rough days.”

Ask any question in an infinite universe, and the answer is yes. Always yes.”

“My favorite painter, Franz Marc, got his head blown off in World War One, but a music professor in Morgantown in 2006 had a print of his painting The Foxes in her house. I saw it and decided I wanted to do that. And I did. So that’s immortality, time travel, and miracle working.