Last Day

by Luanne Rice

Now, look, here comes the body bag again. That’s the other thing they keep running, the medical examiners carrying her out of the house.” “Why are you watching that?” “Because I want to know and see everything that happened to her,” Sam said.

“I’m so glad it was me,” Kate said. “It was as if . . . I was taking care of her, for the last time. Being with her. Not turning away.

She wanted to hold on to the moments, keep them to herself. If she spoke about them, they would become conversation and dissipate. They wouldn’t belong to her anymore.

You don’t have to visit me anywhere, I say. I am with you; I am in you; I always will be.