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I didn't know when.

I can't say that I've accepted death, but I am not terrified of it anymore because as we all know there
isn't really anything we can do to prevent it. In ways birth is the same as death, but because our
mind is in a fixed position on life, I don't think we can ever perceive that as what it really means.
This damn fisheye view. It probably takes someone until their late teenage years to question life
and death, but I'm sure it takes everyone a lifetime to accept death itself.

I get to the front of my apartment building and I look at the flowers Lynne is planting, and they are
starting to die. Today I am surrounded by death it seems. They are turning brown and look
shriveled up. Now that I think about it, I hadn't seen Lynne since that night she came to my
apartment.

As I'm about to open the front door I notice Claire's car in my parking spot. I guess she's over for
dinner. As I'm walking to my apartment door I hear talking and knocking, and eventually I see
Claire and some man standing in front of Lynne's door. It kind of looks like that man who was here
before, the man who was banging on Lynne's door and disturbing everyone in the building. Her
ex-husband. But I can't be entirely sure. I nod at Claire and she nods back, and then asks me if I've
seen Lynne.

I tell her I haven't seen her in days, and I ask if Lynne is missing? Misused question mark. As I'm
asking this question frames of that dream pass through my thoughts. Billboard, have you seen
Maria?

Claire tells me that Lynne is fine, she tells me that she was suppose to meet Lynne today to talk but
she hasn't been answering her phone all morning and she doesn't appear to be home. As her and the
man are walking by to leave the building the man tells me to let them know if I see Lynne, and then
he gives me a dirty look as if he is trying to turn that favor into a demand.

After they leave I open my door and I go fill the fridge with my groceries. The damn garbage can is
full, so I go outside to throw it out. As I'm walking I notice Claire's car is gone, and in the corner of
my eye I see Lynne's window curtains move, as if someone was checking to see if they had left.
Someone is home.

I'm walking back to my apartment door and as I'm about to open it, I instead decide to go see if
Lynne is actually home, to see if anything is wrong. I knock, and then I say it's me, I say my name,
and she opens the door. I jokingly ask her why she's been avoiding me and she begins to laugh, and
those bruises on the side of her face seem as if they were gone. I would kill to see that laugh.

I ask her if that was her husband, and she says it was her ex-husband. She goes on to tell me that
she thinks her sister is seeing her ex-husband and about how much she hates them both. This damn
hate gene.

I ask her why she didn't just open the door and talk with them about it, and she says because Claire
would never realize that Silvio was using Claire to get back at Lynne for taking the kids away from
Silvio. She calls Silvio an Hispanic bastard.