Handle With Care FRAGILE: anniversary. our todays all, After home.

go touching head turning mirror, closer lean like. this what see here bit little tape pull just bed. get Better door. knock jumping bed, run bathroom out scurry gown. hospital sheet cotton white pulling say, folded, full cart pushing room enters scrubs blue in orderly hair, gray skin, dark with sixty-five, about looks He robes. linen around down hang card ID photo glasses pair A shadow. neck. clipboard. only. one it food tray places and lap my over wheels table pushes revealing lid, removes he as look to sit beneath dinner. prepared nicely good, thats Now bite. a take I so hungry, Im great. smells food. at pointing cart. his of side on up back clipboard the hanging voice, ook at me. Not too shabby for an eighty-year-old man, huh? Im feeling pretty good, although cant seem remember got or how bandage ended up hope get out here soon; Id edge of medical tape holding square gauze my forehead. Let me hear with relative ease. Theres second knock, this time louder. Come in, An white five-oclock Noah Hartman? asks, putting on his reading glasses to check the name The He from Mmmm, say, Im glad you like it. I made it myself, he says proudly in a deep, soothing 10

Hey, anyway? wanted, what howd remember? card, meal filled something ark standing remember, thing last The patients. robes these passing and dinner serving now anyway. sneeze use, no its but sneeze, back hold try you. you? know saw you if recognize ever youd doubt although there, seen Noah. me please And really. nothing, of thousands helped has Foundation The modest. so be Dont nothing. that call exactly wouldnt need. again? was name your hand. his out extending Numen, Josh Josh. you, meet to return I eyes. warm with smiling says, he mine, all pleasures way. same quite again it at look never youll because look, good a water tranquil warm, the in honeymoon our on snorkeling were No, really think myself, trying put pieces together. important her. after that, everythings just blank, taking sip wine plastic cup. must be cook here hospital. Who, me? Nah work second shift doing whatevers asked Right Bless Thanks, accepting box Kleenex You familiar. Do I get that all Got faces, guess. But have been known volunteer Hartman Foundation from time time. Maybe me. Ive got tell you, Mr. Hartman, youve done wonderful job down there. Eh, Nothing? families Like said, do look familiar staring him. So, whatd you say Josh... Nice The smile. Oh before forget, believe is yours, he says, handing me delicate being careful not tear it. Careful, its a little soggy. They found your pockets. Dont know if means anything to you. Mesmerized, stare at old photograph, impression sand dollar stamped my mind like happened yesterday. My wife took this with one of those disposable underwater cameras forty years ago, back ninety-six. See what Im holding in the picture? I say, turning it around. Take We 11

SEBASTIAN COLE A backdrop painted beach sand white private, a Caribbean. on effortlessly floated as trunks Nautica navy was water of clarity The camera. underwater an freedom. below. floor ocean Josh? huh, hand, he surface, waters the beneath From snorkel. Robin. to prize newfound his displayed forty-five-foot catamaran dropped its anchor secluded, horseshoe-shaped cove. Steep cliffs rising from this tropical island paradise situated Leeward Islands good-looking thirty-eight-year-old man dark hair, blue eyes, chiseled body. wearing stomach, snorkeling crystal clear turquoise water. beautiful twenty-eight-year-old woman. string bikini showed off small yellow butterfly tattoo her hip silver bellybutton ring trim waist. Her long, red hair flowed top waters surface as she took pictures sea life so pure that everything sight seemed be within reach, matter near or how far. Tropical colored fish vivid colors glided freely all around them boundless sea. In awe of surroundings, there was no other place earth where could experience such unsheltered He tapped Robin shoulder motioned with hands, pointing out lone object sitting undisturbed on Its a dollar. Im sure youve seen one, even held one in your Noah kicked his fins dove down about ten feet, picking up sand dollar resurfacing to get air through proudly No two are exactly the same. Its simplistic design and imperfect form may appear somewhat well, ordinary. Most people probably wouldnt think 12

SAND DOLLAR twice attention? obscurity. into evanesced grains holds dollar, sand like Just eyes. before vanished and tomorrow. shattered easily are today lives youre if And granted. ones take learned: lesson than more love makes who one find enough lucky together treat love, you make possibly person other moment. every cherish You last. your were in back, travel somehow could wishing life spend beauty. precious that laid first day reassurance. for go letting never differently so her onto held would on down it set I as back drift eyes my it, of out table. her. loved really have must You it. at look to picture the up about it. So should insignificant object capture much BOOM ! hand exploded. In what seemed like slow motion, through his fingers into a thousand tiny Because sand dollar represents life, life is. What once so very suddenly without warning, disintegrated no promises. Seemingly solid and secure hands, blessings we have in our The ever any if However, me, this lesson came too late, for already gone, seemingly lost forever. And there nothing could put pieces back together. time, The precious beauty of Robins young face shadowed by sadness as nervously searched Noahs worried If how fragile really was. If only Id known her hidden secret. Snapping the Wow, left quite an impression on you, didnt she? says, picking Yeah, I loved her, right never stopped, even after she was gone. But why bother Josh with all this? Im sure he has better things to do than 13

SEBASTIAN COLE listen pass Hey, away. got who one ramble man old an you? will salt, asks, much? love you made that her it shaker. need do really Besides, all. after subject avoiding no theres the mean You any. good is guess someone. were I if as soul, eyes, deep gazing me... at look used earth? on person other only encouraging eyes kind his chuckling, says, Josh that, besides her. about all him tell broken, was fixed came she Then speak. so alive. feel Made free. be life own my live how happened? what air. thin into vanished disappeared misfortune. and heartbreak a like me to him. Noah? that, love. undying of story So, handing A compelling question sure. mull over while take another bite. way I didnt the time, but guess could say dead on arrival, opened my eyes really matters, you know mean? She was full of life, a real free spirit. gave up everything for her, and in return, she taught Then She Sounds Yeah, some people might that, away. But thats not what Id it. No prefer to call it something else, I say, looking back at Whats A 14