I remember that it was snowing and I was falling in love. Her name was still Paige then, I think. Yes. Raking my fingers through the ash that's left I find her. A sooty inconsistency among the stones. From the cinders I re-assemble a skeleton of hallowed bones and Here's Paige, standing in the front door, tip-toeing back to me. As though from a dead sleep, her voice rises in a lazy plea. "No" slips the empty voice from my tongue. "You cannot love this lifeless thing" And I trust him. I trust myself. A moment passes, and her name is Regina by now, surely. And what we are is absolutely nothing that we seem to be. What is this black thing that moves and dances in my hand? "No" again. A voice exhausted and parched. "What do you hope to find while digging through the sand?" And I find that the answer is...that I never really knew. As I let her fall I realize that these fingers have not changed. They have burned and blown these ashes to glass. Whatever else she may be... Whoever else she may be... She is is my girl of glass, forever transparent. A delicate frame, built up and unfulfilled, but never ungrieved. I pick her up. I place her on my shelf. I lie down. I fall asleep, dreaming only of her.