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"So, you got a story?"

"Not really" He shrugged "Just wanted to cross"

I blinked in surprise, absorbed his statement, then asked, "You just want to cross?"

"If that’s okay"

"That’s es to loved ones left behind No solving hisdown some memento he’d left for his children in a place where no one in his right mind would ever think to look These situations had all the creaoodness of piece of cake without the added calories

He started toward e it--the coffee had yet to kick in--but he didn’t seeed pair of jeans and his sneakers had been painted with Magic Marker

"Wait," he said, pausing midstride

No

He scratched his head, a coet es to people?"

Damn The bane of my existence "Um, no Sorry Have you tried Western Union?"

"Seriously?" he asked, not buying it for a hed and tossed an arm over er, then peeked out fro, uni in "I’ll type a note or so right down the street and talk to a girl named Jenny Tell her Ronald said to bite etup, the reds and yellows of his hoodie "Your narin, he said, "The irony is not lost on h before I could question him on the bite me part of his comment

When people crossed, I could see their lives I could tell if they’d been happy, what their favorite color was, the na up It was a ritual I’d learned to savor I let rease paint and iodine and coconut sha for a heart transplant While there, he decided to make himself useful, so he dressed up like a different clown every day and visited the kids in pediatrics Each day he’d have a new na funny like Rodeo Ron or Captain Boxer Shorts, and each day they had to guess what it was from his voiceless clues He couldn’t talk well near the end, and while gesturing was difficult and left hi out the kids with his gravelly voice He died just hours before a heart had been found Despite inal assumption, he’d never smoked a day in his life