disappearing

"The day she first told me she was starting to disappear I didn't believe her & so she stopped & held her hand up to the sun & it was like thin paper in the light & finally I said you seem very calm for a woman who is disappearing & she said it was a relief after all those years of trying to keep the pieces of her life in one place. Later on, I went to see her again & as I was leaving, she put a package in my hand. This is the last piece of my life, she said, take good care of it & then she smiled & was gone & the room filled with the sound of the wind & when I opened the package there was nothing there & I thought there must be some mistake or maybe I dropped it & I got down on my hands & knees & looked until the light began to fade & then slowly I felt the pieces of my life fall away gently & suddenly I understood what she meant & I lay there for a long time crying & laughing at the same time."

-Brian Andreas