[Milliways]: Conversations with Dead People, the sequel

The scene is familiar in its Wrongness, and that familiarity makes it somewhat easier to accept but no less difficult to believe in.

She sits under her oak, a welcoming smile on her face, and he goes to her without thought, laying his guitar in the grass and laying beside her, head in her lap. He knows better than to try and hold her, but he closes his eyes, and he can feel her fingers moving in his hair as they had done so very long ago.

He wants to stay here always, never have to admit that it isn't real, but he can't. He can't abandon the life he's made so easily.

So he asks, knowing it will hasten her departure, "Why have you come?"

Her fingers continue their movements, and it's just a moment before she says, "Because now as ever you don't listen."

He blinks his eyes open to look at her, confused and worried to have disappointed her. "Haven't I done what you asked? Haven't I lived and...and loved?" Even at her request, it feels something like a betrayal to admit that to her.

Still she strokes through his hair, and her voice is gentle, if chiding. "You know the answer there, beloved." Her free hand moves to his chest as she adds, "The heart is an infinite gift. There is no reason to hold part of it back." There is hesitation in her voice, and he closes his eyes again as she adds, "And there is no reason to wait for what you know will never be. He deserves more from you."

He waits a moment, expecting she will disappear on him again, but she does not, and he thinks he knows why. "He deserves everything from me."

He doesn't have to open his eyes to know she's smiling. He feels her move, feels the coolness of her lips on his forehead. "It may not be precisely the same, but do not make it different where it is not."

Her fingers are still in his hair, and he settles in. If she disappears again, it is not until he has fallen asleep, one last time, in her lap.