She told me this was what she was wearing to graduation.
I told her it was beautiful.
She told me the color was called vermillion. She told me vermillion was the color medieval painters used for the most important figures in a composition because it was expensive and rare and demanded that the eye look at it before anything else.
She told me she was going to be the most important figure in the composition.
She was. She always had been.
Part 4 — What Ethan Carried Alone
Lily passed on a Tuesday in March. Seventeen years old. In her hospital bed. Holding Ethan’s hand with her right and mine with her left.
Her last words were not dramatic. They were practical. She told Ethan to remember the pocket. She told him not to open it until graduation night. She told him the dress was in the closet.
Then she told me she loved me.
