As I was leaving the hospital, his doctor hurried after me, his face pale.
He was holding something behind his back so I couldn’t see it.
“Wait!
Please, wait!”
Something in his voice made me stop.
“Mark gave me this three weeks ago,” he said.
“He was very specific.
You weren’t supposed to see it while he was alive.”
I read the first line three times before my eyes would move to the next one.
The hallway was empty except for the doctor, who had stepped back to give me space.
A cart rolled past somewhere around the corner.
A phone rang at the nurses’ station and was answered before the second ring.
Everything around me was continuing normally, and I was standing completely still.
I made myself read.
—
*By the time you read this, you’ll have already given someone a part of me.
I need you to know there’s something else I left behind — something I should have told you long before now.*
