Exton

I grin. "Won't you step into my office?" She gives me a faint smile and slides into the booth. "Can I get you a drink, something to eat?"

"Nothing, thank you."

"Well, then how can I help you today?"

"You know that I don't have long to live." A quiet, certain statement of fact.

I nod, meeting her head-on. "Yes, I know."

She fidgets for awhile, uncomfortable with whatever's coming next. "What - what will it be like?"

"I'm sorry, Grace, I don't understand the question."

"That's all right, I'm not exactly sure what I'm asking." She seems to look inward for a long moment before she speaks again. "When I die - what will it be like? Will it hurt?"

The fear and uncertainty in her eyes tears at my heart and my sight mists for a second. Not now, Jack. I keep my tone light. "I can't answer that with any certainty - having never actually died myself - but I suspect it might come as a relief." Her eyes widen, just a shade, just for a second. "Grace, I don't really know any more about the mechanics of dying than you do. I can tell you this, though, with considerable certainty: you have nothing to worry about. I know Torrent plans to be with you, right up to the end, and he can block the pain - if there is pain - without hurting himself. Give him this" - I hand her a business card. "My cell number is on the back. He'll know when the time is close. Have him call me then, no matter what time it is, and I'll come. If there's a problem - my kind of problem, I mean - I'll do what I do." She smiles gratefully and I get a glimpse of the woman she was. "Now - I have a favor of my own to ask."

"Name it."

"I would like very much to kiss you."

"Jack! You don't want to kiss an old lady like me!"

"That's where you're wrong." My voice is hushed, almost reverent. "The last few months, you think you've seen miracles - and you have; but you're completely unconscious of the miracle peering back out from your mirror." I clasp her hands between mine. "The work of these hands is a miracle. The things you've done in your life - that's a miracle. Your life itself - that's a miracle. I can appreciate better than most the brevity of human life; and when I consider how many miracles some people manage to cram into one short lifetime... it's very humbling, Grace. I could wish to have met you before I did... But it's an honor to know you now, and I'd like to have something of you to remember when" - my voice skips a beat suddenly, my eyes feel dry and hot - "when you're no longer with us." I sit silent for a moment - a new personal record - then raise my eyes to meet Grace's. "Think I could have that kiss now?"

She moves around to the end of the table, moving like a girl of sixteen, and I meet her halfway. She comes to my arms willingly and I hold her close, feeling the muffled throb of her heart. I tilt her face up, lower my mouth to hers. The kiss is slow and tender, achingly sweet, the innocent kiss of a child on the cusp of womanhood mingled with the full-blooded passion and fire of a mature woman. It's a kiss to inspire poetry in those who have the skill, but when it ends, all I can say is "wow".

Eloquent as all hell, that's me.

Grace's voice is faint and a little shaky. "Thank you."

"No. Thank you." I remember how to breathe now. "Torrent's a lucky man. Don't forget to give him that card."

She walks carefully back to Torrent's table and I signal Patti for another Corona.

What might have been. No older phrase in any language....