“When someone passes, Benjamin, people always ask, ‘Why did God take them?’ A better question would be ‘Why did God give them to us?’ What did we do to deserve their love, their joy, the sweet moments we shared? Didn’t you have such moments with Annabelle?”

“Every day,” I rasped.

“Those moments are a gift. But their end is not a punishment. I am never cruel, Benjamin. I know you before you are born. I know you after you die. My plans for you are not defined by this world.

“Beginnings and endings are earthly ideas. I go on. And because I go on, you go on with me. Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you. But the human form is not permanent. It was never meant to be. That gift belongs to the soul.

“I know the tears you shed, Benjamin. When people leave this Earth, their loved ones always weep.” She smiled. “But I promise you, those who leave do not.”

She lifted a hand and motioned upward. And at that instant, Annabelle, I can hardly describe it; the open air seemed to sweep aside, and the blue reflection of the atmosphere melted into the most brilliant light, a color for which I have no word. In that light, I saw more souls than there are stars in the sky. Yet somehow I could see the contented faces of each and every one of them. Among those faces, I saw my loving mother.

And I saw you.

I need nothing else.

Land

There were more pages, but LeFleur stopped reading. He stuffed them into his briefcase and wiped his eyes as he raced from the office.

He drove home trembling. He entered the yellow house and ran up the stairs. He put his hand on the doorknob of his daughter’s room, and for the first time in four years, he turned it open. As he stood there, staring at the small bed and the pink stars he’d painted on the ceiling, Patrice stepped up behind him and said, “Jarty? What’s going on?”

He turned and grabbed her close. Through heaving breath, he whispered, “Lilly’s all right. She’s all right. She’s safe.” And Patrice began crying, too.

“I know, sweetheart. I know she is.”

They hugged each other tightly and later would not remember how long they held that embrace. But they slept that night without waking up once. And when LeFleur opened his eyes the next morning, he felt something he had not felt in a very long time. He felt peace.

News

ANCHOR: Tonight, an astonishing development in the search for the Galaxy. Our Tyler Brewer is aboard the exploration vessel the Iliad.