"Chad was chairman of the committee. His dream was to double last year's fundraising. The least I can do is try to help."

She wouldn't say the rest, but Chad's words still bounced through her memory. "I'm going to show them all—just like Mom does with her cancer fundraiser every year."

"Oh, Sweetie." Blair wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

Andie sank into his arms. Sobs spilled forth, like a tube of paint bursting, splattering everything in its path.

Blair's arms trembled and she realized that he, too, was crying. Some time later, they pulled away from each other, tears spent. Blair's face was set in decision. "How much money did the scholarship fund raise last year?"

"Twenty thousand dollars."

Blair lifted her chin with his fingers so that she was forced to meet his eyes. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Tomorrow, I'll go to the school office and tell them that our family is donating forty-five thousand dollars to the scholarship fund. We'll do it in Chad's memory. How would that be?"

She looked back at the smeared scene on the canvas. "What about the painting?"

"That goes away. Things like this will only pull you down. We need to be strong and keep going. For Chad's sake."

Andie nodded. Chad would want her to keep going. "Okay. For Chad's sake." I'm sorry I let you down again, Chad.

* * *

Melanie Johnston placed the stack of mail on the frayed bedspread, then settled herself on the lumpy mattress. She sliced through the first envelope. The cream-colored card inside was embossed with a shining cross on a hillside and glossy doves flying in the sky above. She flipped it open, not bothering to read the poem of five or six verses. Why should she care what some poet thought about grief? She knew grief, lived it, and there was nothing poetic about it. She skipped instead to the handwritten message below, scrawled in blue ink.

Jeff's absence has left a hole in all our hearts. My greatest comfort is knowing I will see him
again in heaven, someday. Please feel free to call or visit if you ever need to talk.

In Him, Jake Sterling

"Well, Mr. Sterling, it might give you comfort to think of seeing Jeff in heaven some day, but I want him here." She wanted to shred the note and mail it back to the man, but she knew his words mirrored Jeff's own beliefs. Besides, if she destroyed all the cards that said something similar, what would become of Jeff's memorial?

She looked at the length of twine she'd strung across his room. The middle sagged from the weight of so many cards.

Jeff would be so happy to see this. To see how his life affected so many others. He never understood how much everyone loved him. "Can you see this Jeff?"

The yellowed ceiling paint responded with silence.

Her gaze turned to the walls. Posters of sailboats with colorful sails puffed out like crescent moons, expansion bridges lit with thousands of white bulbs, and Harley Davidson motorcycles rolling past the ocean, filled every spare inch. Jeff had always been drawn to physics and mechanics. Now his dreams were gone like the puffs of wind pushing the sailboats.