Charlotte was visiting a close friend one day. A large field of grass surrounded them, storm clouds turning the horizon into a gunmetal gray. They were alone together, and that was just what they needed.

“I haven’t come by in a while,” Charlotte murmured, her voice hardly audible even to her own ears. “Sorry about that, Mary.”

Mary had not responded, not that she expected her to—she had always been shy. Within the deafening silence, Charlotte could almost hear her saying, You should be sorry.

“I don’t know if you would have wanted to see me if you had a choice, and I don’t want to know. I don’t want to remember anything that happened in the past. All that matters now is the future, right?” The air was still devoid of any other words besides hers, seeming so vacant in the boundaryless space around them. “I keep hoping you’ll answer me . . . I’m forgetting myself again.”

Charlotte sighed as a gust of wind whistled by her, and in the quiet between her and Mary, that was all she had to listen to.

“I just . . . I’ve been mulling over everything that’s happened between us, and . . . I guess I came here to say sorry. For everything. And I’m sorry that it had to end the way it did,” Charlotte continued, her voice thickening with tears. “There are so many things I want to say to you, but it’s too late for that, isn’t it?”

All she wanted was to hear Mary’s voice one more time—to hear something from her—but her yearning was not fulfilled. There would be that empty void inside of her for as long as she lived.

“All I can say is that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that we ended with a fight. I’m sorry that your life had to turn out this way. I’m sorry that I didn’t apologize while I still had the chance . . . while you were still here . . .”

Charlotte sunk to her knees and placed a single tulip on Mary’s marble gravestone, her full name, date of birth and date of death chiseled across it. “I saw this at the store earlier, and I had to get it.” She chuckled quietly to herself, but there was hardly any amusement in it. “I’ll see you soon.”

At that, Charlotte turned around, walked down the grassy hill, and let the cemetery vanish behind her.