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Searavesite, everyone cried He had been seventy, had had a full life He’d cohter and his son, and he’d created a good home for them He’d been a pastry chef, and he’d worked very hard and saved his money, and finally he’d opened his own restaurant, where he also e as well as feeding oodthe ain

Most people were standing, but Gran was still seated when he went to her side, touched her hair and whispered into her ear

Gran looked up, startled, frowning Then it seeh her tears

Granda turned, as if aware that Christie atching, and winked He looked so healthy So er His playful Gaelic self

She couldn’t help spiper playing "Danny Boy"

It was then that she looked up, across the expanse of the cemetery

There was another funeral going on, srandfather’s There were a man and a wo her heart out The priest was speaking, obviously trying to coely, it seemed to Christie that they were in a hurry, as if they didn’t want to be seen by anyone else

There was soain He was eyeing her with a touch of wistful hurave," he reatest part of any existence, and in that, I have died so rich"

She wanted to speak to him; she also wanted to scream

Because he couldn’t really be there

She heard hiirl Kindness to others, in me honor"

She realized that his service had co a rose She followed the others’ lead and dropped it down on the coffin She turned away and noticed that one rose had fallen on the ground She picked it up and, without thinking, started walking over to the other funeral, which had ended The priest and the distraught couple were gone Only the caretakers were there now, getting ready to lower the coffin into the ground

"Do you know this man?" the caretaker asked as she drew nearer

"No"

"Then…?"

She set the rose she was holding on the coffin "Go with God," sheShe turned away frorave where so few hadthat it would randrandfather Gran stared at her, then said, "Aye, lovie, I sensed hiht, to her surprise, herthat you’re seeing your grandfather Stop it It’s hurtful, do you understand?"

She didn’t understand "I wasn’t hurting anyone," Christie protested

"And you wandered off…God, that was dreadful To think that he was buried at the same time, on the sa about?"

Her mother shook her head "Christina, I’, too…but you’re drea when you’re awake You cannot see Granda And youthat you do!"

Her mother was upset, of course; she had just lost her father Christie understood that But, it was almost as if her randfather, wasn’t that a good thing?

To be honest, she wished that he would coain, closer, that he would speak to her, that he would explain

Who had that other freshly dug grave belonged to?

HerEveryone said it was terrible There had been a murderer on the loose, but luckily he was dead He’d been killed by the police, or he was the police, or so like that She was irritated by the way people claer, after all, tall for her age, and she was actually developing a shape It was insulting to be treated like a child Then she realized that she had set a flower on aBut she had seen Granda just before, and he had spoken about kindness…

"What’s going on?" she asked her friend Ana, who lived down the street and was her own age Ana had come to the funeral and then back to the house afterward, of course, along with her parents and her cousin Jedidiah, looking handsohbor was there, too, Tony, as eighteen already He and Jed were off talking, so she was able to talk to Ana alone

"You didn’t know?" Ana asked her "They got that guy that was killing people I guess maybe you didn’t hear as much about him down south, but up here, people were paranoid He was buried today, too"

And she had put a rose on his coffin

Later, when she was alone with her grandrandfather

"You loved hi you’ve seen hi to easeyou, Gran?" she asked

"No, it’s not that"

"Then what?"

Gran looked at her very seriously "It’s dangerous Very dangerous So today you’ve said goodbye Never, ever think of hiain"