Beautiful Ugly

by Alice Feeney

“I hope you die in your sleep.” I looked up, thought perhaps I’d misheard. “What?” “I hope you die in your sleep. I’ve been thinking about it lately—death—and it’s got to be the best way to go. If you truly loved someone, that’s how you’d want them to die, and I love you more than anything. So I hope you die in your sleep.” We said that to each other every night before we went to bed from then on. I hope you die in your sleep was our way of saying I love you.