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What was there to say, really?

Her father was dying Nothing could change that Words were like pennies, fallen into corners and down the cracks, not worth the effort of collecting

Nina had spent a lot of ti universal pain through individual suffering She was good at it, too, able to soh to record it As terrible as it had often been, her place besidepeople with catastrophic injuries, everything that came before paled in co herself On this day when her father came home frorief in a box and lock it shut

She was standing in her parents’ bedrooarden and the orchard beyond Outside, the sky was a bold cerulean blue; cloudless A pale winter sun shone down, its war snow Water dripped fro the porch rail below

She brought the ca down at Dad, trying to smile; Nina captured the frailty in her sister’s face, the sadness in her eyes Next, she focused on her al as Lauren Bacall, as cold as Barbara Stanwyck

Fro bed, with stark white pillows and blankets piled around hi He blinked slowly, his s to half-h the viewfinder, Nina saw his rheumy brown eyes focus on her The shock of it, of the directness of his gaze, surprised her

“No cameras,” he said His voice was frayed and tired, not his voice at all, and somehow that loss, the very sound of him, orse than all the rest She knehy he’d said that He knew her, knehy the camera was important to her now

Nina lowered the ca naked suddenly, vulnerable Without that thin layer of a glass lens, she was here instead of there, looking at her father, as dying She moved in toward the bed, stood beside Meredith Mom was on the other side All of them were tucked in close

“I will be back in a moment,” Mom said

Dad nodded at her The look that passed between her parents was so intimate that Nina felt almost like an intruder

As soon as Moone, Dad looked at Meredith “I know you’re afraid,” he said quietly

“We don’t need to talk about it,” Meredith said

“Unless you want to talk about it,” Nina said, reaching down for his hand “You”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Meredith said, stepping back from the bed

Nina didn’t want to explain to her sister, not now, but she’d lived alongside death for years She knew there were peaceful passings and angry, desperate ones As hard as it was for her to conte, she wanted to help hie-spotted forehead, reerin his orchard All except for his forehead, which was always pale because of the hats he wore