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Eventually, one put a diagnosis in front of him: stomach cancer. He accepted the paper with no expression.
Stepping out into the day, the light blinded him, and he heard a voice he'd thought of a thousand nights: "Pray, why didn't you tell me you had been in a car accident?"
He turned and saw Claire there, lively and scolding, speaking to a man in a hospital gown.
He had never seen Claire like that — animated and alive. They joked about him making her soup when he got better, and she teased, "Why are you calling me that?"
They laughed in an ordinary way that became, in Jason's memory, the sweetest thing he'd ever tasted — the simple ribs soup she'd made him in a life that could have been.
He watched them go around the corner and felt a pain he couldn't explain.
That ordinary thing — the smallness of it — turned into the most precious impossible delight.
No wonder people say, later, that only with hindsight do we see how important a thing was.
—
Extra: Excerpts from Evelyn's diary ("My Little Luna")
July 18 — I came home late and got scolded.
Little Luna was doing crafts and Mom found it.
She threw the string she made into the bin; Little Luna tried to get it back but it was cut.
Aug 29 — I broke a cup and got punished, not allowed to eat all day.
I was so hungry. That night Mom went out and Little Luna secretly gave me two packs of biscuits and I ate them fast. She laughed.
Aug 30 — Mom caught us with the biscuits. She hit Little Luna with a hanger.
I cried but Little Luna smiled at me as if not to tell.
... (additional diary entries of small, tender everyday memory follow, showing the sisters' love.)
—
(The End)
