Look Your Last on All Things Lovely

There is an angel on the ground. She stands before me, gentle, transparent. It is her the light is coming from. At first I think she’s burning; the air around her is quivering, but there is the fluttering of a thousand wings, moths and other creatures, throwing themselves at her, flying back and throwing themselves at her again. She stands completely still and glows. She looks like everyone I’ve ever loved. Come, I think, come and free the fettered earth.

Marie seeks out a friend from her youth in England whom she has not seen for many years. Clara spends a day in Rome with a stranger. An unnamed woman awakens to a world that has changed.