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MAIREAD CASE

51

Tiny sees the shape in the car and tells herself no. If she turns around, if she shakes her head and walks, she can have the distance of another couple hours. She can still have a brother who ollies on a dime and always comes home with a flower in his belt loop. Bear will find Kelley, find the body instead, and Tiny will never say she already knew.

Then, Tiny, breathing, realizes doing this would erase her body too, and so she walks into the garage anyway. Tiny doesn’t turn on the light. Kelley’s body is bright enough, it is, the brightness, and besides that Tiny doesn’t want to see everything right away. It feels like her brain would shatter and chime and no sense could be made of anything, anymore, ever.

Her second thought is that Meryl, the girl who loves Kelley—Meryl must never see this. Or maybe Meryl should. See this, see it, like the body is not a person. Was never. If the body is not a person, where is Kelley? Tiny doesn’t know, but she is sure anyone who is left needs a ritual. Anyone drowning in future memory. Everyone who still has time here, time to wear pants or manage a gentle tinnitus. If people are left, then time exists. If time exists, sometime, a war won’t kill everyone. It is possible. Even before the shape in the garage, Tiny knew the war killed Kelley. She couldn’t tell how much, but she knew it did. Tiny remembers seventh grade when her class read about a Japanese girl dying from leukemia. The teacher