Ethan ran down the hall in pursuit, faster than Megan thought possible.
When the Sister turned her attention back to the office door, Megan was ready. She landed her right fist on the very end of the nun’s nose, making blood splatter and making the woman shriek in pain.
“That,” she said, “is for, is for everything.” Megan, overwrought with a tidal wave of emotions, started to cry. A nurse pulled her aside and hugged her while the doctors tried to open the locked door.
Megan buried her face in the nurse’s shoulder and let it all out.
***
Jackie held the phone behind her as she ran, filming her pursuer while she tried to narrate.
“My mother is trying to end my father’s suffering,” she said through heaving breaths. “Sister Benedict attacked my sister, and Ethan Overbee is chasing me. I think he wants to hurt me or kill me.”
Jackie was across the yard in a heartbeat. She stopped at the edge of the seven-foot fence they called The Wall.
“Give me the phone, Jackie,” Ethan said. He was panting, too. “There’s nowhere else for you to go. It’s all over.”
Jackie looked straight into his eyes. “Almost,” she said. She saw the perplexed look on his face, then turned around and threw the phone over the fence. They both watched it tumble end over end against the night sky.
A second later, there was an exclamation of joy from the other side of The Wall. “I got it!” It was Jason Sanderson’s voice. He was exactly where Hazel said he would be. What Jackie didn’t expect to hear was the cheer that went up from the crowd that had gathered around him.
Jackie turned back to Ethan. “Now,” she said, “it’s over.”
Ethan dropped to his knees, then to his butt, and sat down on the grass as if he’d been shot.
Jackie stepped around him and went back into the house.
***
Deirdre held the pillow over Jared’s face for what felt like an eternity, but what the clock on the wall revealed to be only about ninety seconds. That’s when he flatlined. Jared never moved, never twitched. Deirdre was still holding the pillow there when the doctors broke down the door nearly four minutes later.
She stepped out of the way knowing she had succeeded. Jared was dead.
Deirdre, understanding the gravity of what she had done, staggered backward and fell into a chair, where she started to cry, and then she cried some more.
***
Glio’s life ended a few seconds after that of Jared Stone. But to a high-grade glioblastoma multiforme, a few seconds is an eternity. With no memories to eat, with no external stimuli to occupy its attention, Glio fell into a black hole of nothingness.
Some would say it was just deserts, that it was what a brain tumor had coming, and they would probably be right. But Glio had been transformed. He had become the sum total of Jared Stone’s memories. He had grown to love Jared Stone’s wife and daughters; he had come to love Jared Stone.
The Glio wasn’t sorry to die, only sorry he hadn’t lived more.
Epilogue
Later
The final episodes of both Life and Death and The Real Family Stone of Portland, Oregon aired the day after Jared Stone passed away. The network, having dispatched Ethan and his senior crew without the courtesy of an in-person meeting, elected not to show any of the footage from that harrowing night in the Stone household. Instead, Roger Stern, in a bold move, did a live interview with Deirdre, Jackie, and Megan, during which he apologized for the behavior of the American Television Network and handed a shell-shocked Deirdre the five-million-dollar check she had been promised.
She and the girls were quiet but respectful. They thanked Roger but didn’t say much more. The balance of the hour was a commercial-free montage of images and clips of the Stone family in happier times. Much of it had been provided weeks earlier, when Jared had first signed the deal, as background for the producers.
The Real Family Stone of Portland, Oregon was equally simple. It showed Jackie’s unedited footage, beginning when she was locked in the bathroom and ending with the iPhone held high over Jason Sanderson’s head. The final image was of the assembled crowd—including many of the kids from Jackie’s school, along with Ms. Onorati and a few of the other teachers—cheering. There was no commentary; there were no titles or credits, just two words in a plain, unassuming font: “The End.”
***
Jared was laid to rest in a small, private funeral, attended only by his family and closest friends. It was, in typical Portland fashion, raining. Deirdre, Jackie, and Megan stayed huddled under a single umbrella and cried as they bid their husband and father a final good-bye.
It was short. It was elegant. It was bittersweet.
Afterward, everyone went back to the Stone house, now completely free of television equipment, and ate lunch.
***