Karen died, which was sad at the time, but looking back she was okay with it.
“Everyone goes through it,” she said. “You have to be philosophical.”
The great thing about being dead was getting to fly.
Everyone had wings after they died!
Most people didn’t use them, because most people who die are old and scared of change.
Karen liked to fly over them and point and laugh.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” she laughed, which made the old people trip on their wings and shake their fists at her.
Karen thought it was hilarious.
Karen was a jerk, but that was okay – she was dead!
“It’s not all flying and making fun of old people, though,” Karen liked to say to her new dead friends, as they roosted on building tops or flew over lakes, the tips of their wings just brushing the surface. “Sometimes you get sad!”
Karen’s new dead friends never said anything to her.
Their faces were long and limber and their eyes were large and sad.
They had no mouths!
They were also pretty small but they clearly adored her.
They perched on her shoulders while she slept and touched her face with cool, dry fingers.