It is hard to account for the trauma of a thing that didn’t happen, hard to accommodate a fear based in an almost-event, a thing that might have occurred, but didn’t. The truth, though, is that Elias found himself so close to the edge of life, came so near to the brink of it, that he changed us both forever. Still, years later, it is the music of what almost happened that haunts me most, and will not leave my mind.
