Rafael and Maurice decided to celebrate their 20-year anniversary by doing something really special. They went backpacking in a remote location where neither one had ever been before. What happened there is tragic and beautiful at the same time. For almost a week, they exalted life together. They explored a new and strange place with a tender curiosity afforded by a lifetime of learning from each other and the confident ease granted only by a loving and deep connection – a connection so deep that it was not perceptible on the surface in even the tiniest bit. And then Maurice fell off a cliff while trying to snap a photo of a butterfly. Poor dears.

We never did recover Maurice’s body. Rafael took most things as a sign. This incident was a sign that their love for each other had finally overflowed and Maurice was ready to meet his maker and seize his rest right then and there. When he dies, Rafael wants all of us to return to that cliff and reunite his remains with Maurice’s. Do you all know where we will have to go? The answer may come together in a way not immediately apparent but not complex in the end – like a lot of life’s good things.