“Queenie, what do you think happens when we die?”

       “I don’t know, we just die. Nothing happens.”

      “When did you become such a pessimist?”

      “I’m not a pessimist, just a realist. Nothing happens, you’re just here one minute and the next you’re gone.”

       “I think we come back.”

     “Come back? Like reincarnation or something like that?”

      “Or something like that. It just doesn’t make sense to be gone and never come back.” He looked at me. “Wouldn’t you want to come back?”

      “Yeah, I guess. But it doesn’t make it real.”

      “It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not to you. What matters is that I believe it’s real.”

    I fell silent after that. It wasn’t something I could have argued with him about. The thing about Elliott was, once he got something in his head you could argue with him in circles, and he would still believe what he believes.