memories will rust and erode into lists

He asked if there was something to mark the ending and I said there was not.  No cake? he joked.  (He has not known me very long.)  I said nothing.  I mean I said the word nothing, not that I did not speak.

He said maybe a kite instead.  And this piqued my interest far more than cake.  But this time I said nothing, not the word nothing, just waited.  He said I'll tell you something about kites.  If you like.  He could not possibly have known that I already know a thing or two about kites.  I wanted to hear what he was going to say about kites but we were disconnected.  I did not call him back; he did not call me either.   I put down the phone and thought awhile about kites. And endings.  

It's different when things end and we know it.  Then there is the opportunity to mark the occasion.  Cake, funeral, kite.  But the important endings, the ones that you will look back on as significant milestones or significant losses are usually the ones you weren't even aware were happening until it was too late for that kind of acknowledgement. 

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