Columbia stood by the door, quietly sobbing. Kind, sweet, lovable Angel lay in the hospital bed, dying of AIDS, held by his lover through and through. She daren't draw any closer for fear of ruining their privacy; she daren't leave for fear of losing the endearing drummer boy. So she watched from as far away as she could get and still watch, her ethereal makeup unsmeared by her otherworldly tears. He was fading, she could tell: This was last night on Earth. When the heart-monitor went silent, her hands flew to her mouth to stifle her sobs, disbelieving eyes silently begging the boy to come back to life and keep the loving the man that cradled his body.
There was a presence at her elbow, but she didn't really care. Nurse or no nurse, Angel was dead.
"Is that really me?" With a muffled gasp, Columbia spun quickly to find Angel, looking better than he had in months, standing beside her. Mutely, she nodded her head, sympathetic to the boy's plight. "Oh…poor Collins."
"Do ya' always think of him first?"
His eyes met hers.
"Always."
"Oh." And hers looked away. "I was gonna say 'poor you', seein' as you're dead and all."
He looked away, unable to handle it, and she knew what she had to do, why she hadn't moved on.
"I'm Columbia," she announced, thrusting her hand at him and grasping his tightly. "I died nearly twenty-seven years ago after being shot with a laser beam by my best friend's brother for trying to protect the man I loved." Angel stared at her with wide eyes, taken aback by the blunt honesty. "It's not such a big deal to me, ya' know. Bein' shot, bein' dead. I got to make something good happen while I was dead, something I never coulda done while I was alive."
"What did you make happen?"
"That," she said, gesturing toward the crying Collins who was just now laying Angel's corpse back down. She winced and corrected herself. "Well, not that. I mean, your love."
"We would have loved each other—"
"Sure ya' woulda," she said with a shrug, putting her arm around Angel's shoulders. To him, she was a kind, if queer, stranger; to her, he was a best friend, almost a brother. "But I introduced ya'!"
