And then I was fourteen and two more months, standing with Kevin in front of the headshot that took the place of Shaun’s missing body at his funeral, where he told me he was finished. No revenge, no answers required, just moving on, hoping I would join him, knowing that I wouldn’t.
And finally I was sixteen, spotting Ben for the first time in person, across another colorless funeral crowd, at the same time hearing faint, frantic words in his newly recognizable voice.
“Mina! Mina, can you hear me?”
Words that he wasn’t speaking yet.
I was sixteen, sixteen and myself just minutes ago, beating the aerosol can against Splinter-Haley’s skull and being flung backward into the open pod space.
Then there was nothing again, nothing at all but a faceless shape forming itself with tremendous ef
