Chapter 24: Three Hundred Eighty-One

Ivy picked the fountain.

It was the last Saturday in March, the week of our birthday, and we had just turned twenty-three.

The morning was sunny and cold, and the UConn lawn was full of strangers' families.

She had left her cane in Talbot's rental car.

She walked from the lot to the fountain on her own, slowly, with one hand through Miles's arm.

She stopped twice to cough and did not apologize either time.

"My doctor says a mile by June," she said, when she caught me watching. "I'm going to make her say two."

"You'll make her say three."

"I'll make her say five, just to be annoying."

Miles laughed.

He had quit selling equipment the week after the gala, and he had a haircut and a lighter way of standing.

Talbot walked beside me, with his hands in his jacket pockets, looking at the brick buildings.

"This is where it started," he said.

"It's where it got deleted."

"Then we'll fix it."

The fountain was running, and the stone rim was wet and bright in the sun.

I stood at the edge and looked at the empty bench where the family used to sit.

I had held a camera on this lawn on graduation day, and on a dozen days like it.

I had never once handed it to anyone.

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