It was very bright inside, so she closed her eyes for most of the service. She didn’t cry. Everyone else did; Tissues kept being passed down the rows. Lily just waited for it to be over. The minister had preached that God had a reason for her parents’ deaths, a purpose only God knew. So, for weeks, Lily racked her mind to discover that purpose. Was it to spare her parents from aging, to let them exist for their loved ones as ever young, ever handsome, ever charming and at ease? Or, Lily wondered, was their death meant, in fact, for her—did she need to wake up, to grow up, to suffer, to learn?