Last words

Charles and Dick

My best friend was dying in a hospice in Idaho. I visited. He looked like shit, like a derelict, unshaven, unkempt. I stood at his bedside. He looked at me, half alert, drugged with pain killers, an impish smile on his lips, and said, "All gone. All used up." I knew what he meant. He'd spent the last of the Life Force. And the grin said, Ha! you assholes, I lasted longer than you thought I would! I bent forward and kissed him on the forehead. He said, "Lovely," and closed his eyes. I went to my motel, planning to visit the next day, but he died that night.

Dick's grave at White Bird, Idaho