Tonight

In the car on the way home from school, Merrick is full of death -- real for him for the first time. Death orbits his household, his clear joy-lit life marked by a new uncertainty, a far off recognition that there is something about which he must be concerned. Someday.

Merrick: "Mom? Some people believe that when you die you'we bown again in a new life."

Matron: "True. That's what Buddhists believe. That the spirit lives forever and just changes forms. We're all part of each other and everything."

Merrick: "I don't believe in that. I'm me. I wish I could know I get a new life, but I don't."

Matron: "That's okay, honey. Nobody knows exactly what death holds because nobody has been been there."

Merrick: "You know the good thing about getting a second life would be?"

Matron: "What?"

Merrick: "I wouldn't wemembew you, or Stwykew, or Scawlett ow Dad. If I don't wemembew that I lost you, I can't be sad."

Here, the Matron cannot speak.

Merrick: "But let's pwomise. The big kind."

Matron: "Okay. Promise."

Merrick: "If we get anothew life, we will know each other."

Matron: "Promise. I'll give you a signal. Like a special smile."

Merrick: "Pewfect. Because I'll know that."

And they both smiled.

Firefly life. Eternity unfolds in us daily and then, we are gone. No, she is not yet mourning her friend. Brittled by pain -- but still holding life's sheen. Hang on darling. The world is with you tonight. Especially Merrick.