I believe that knowing we will die causes art and kindness. I mean if you knew you were going to live forever, why invest your soul in that sculpture? Why not be a jerk? I also believe if there are immortals out there, they are uncultured assholes.
My grandmother, when she couldn’t locate loganberry wine, drank T-bird flips–which is composed mostly of T-bird, a dash of Sprite or 7-Up and a reasonably clean glass. Or a coffee cup, if the glasses were too foul. Gram was a very good human being, even when Death came for her on the slow, she never stopped being true to herself; she didn’t hedge her bets as far as the Kingdom wnet.
For a writer, Frederick K. Foote’s elegant Goodbye shows you how to address the subject of dying. It stays away from sentimentality and yet is far from cold.
Q: When you started writing this, had you already decided that whatever trouble that had lain between Que and Zeeb would not be thoroughly explained? What you did there was excellent. Others would have felt obliged to tell.
Q: Once the characters were firmly established, you stayed away from unnecessary dialogue attribution. Was this by choice, or did you insinuate it by ear?
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literally stories 
I hope everyone reads this story and all others published by Mr. Foote.
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Hi Leila,
Hope Fred eventually sees this and gets around to answering.
Fred, I loved this the first time around and it hasn’t lost any of it’s power or sentiment.
And to anyone reading this, take Leila’s tip and look back at all of Fred’s stories – You wont be disappointed!
Hugh
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