Maggie woke up late in the night. She slipped out of bed, whispering a shush to Zeus when he whimpered at her from his crate. "I'll be right back," she assured the puppy.

Zeus let out a yip, drawing her back into the room. "Oh, all right," she whispered, afraid the puppy would wake her brothers or her parents. "Come on, but be quiet."

She went down the stairs with Zeus beside her. The downstairs was dark, but she wasn't afraid. She had nothing to fear in her own home. Trotting to the back door, she unlocked it and slid it open, letting the puppy out into the yard. Leaving the door open far enough for him to come back inside when he was done, she went into the kitchen. She pushed the stepstool along the floor and climbed up to get a cup. Opening the refrigerator, she took out the milk and filled her cup. After returning the milk to its shelf, she shut the refrigerator and returned to the back door, sipping her milk while she waited for her puppy.

She heard a noise in the family room and went to investigate. Stopping in the doorway, she saw the shadowy outline of a familiar figure in the recliner over near the game cabinet. She approached quietly, in case he was sleeping. But he wasn't asleep. He turned his head toward her when she was halfway across the room. "Why are you up, mouse?" he asked softly.

"I waked up and came down for milk. Why are you up?"

Turnabout was fair play. He smiled. "I just couldn't sleep."

"Is your brain too busy?"

"Something like that."

Zeus came bounding into the room as Maggie set her cup on the end table beside the recliner. He circled Maggie a few times, wagging his tail. Finally, he plopped down beside the chair. Maggie watched as Bobby raised a glass to his mouth and reached down to pet the puppy. "Can we talk now, Daddy?"

He looked at her in the light of the full moon that shined through the window, and he finished off the last swallow in his glass. Now, later, what did it matter? He grabbed the bottle from the floor beside the chair, refilled his glass and recapped the bottle, setting it back on the floor. Maggie climbed up into his lap and rested her head against his chest. "Of course we can talk," he murmured, wrapping an arm around her.

She was quiet for a moment, concentrating on the sensations around her. She could both hear and feel the beat of his heart beneath her head. She smelled the combination of whiskey and cigarettes on his breath, a familiar scent she had always known, always associated with him. She rubbed her hand over the soft cotton of his t-shirt. "Is Gramma in heaven with God or is she inna unnerworld with Hades?"

"Where do you think she is?"

"Grampa says she's in heaven."

He took a drink and said, "That's what Grandpa believes. If he lived in Ancient Greece, he would say she was in the Underworld. Every culture on the planet, past and present, has its own beliefs about what happens after death."

Her brow furrowed as she thought about that. "Why? If they're all diff'rent, which one is right?"

"All of them, or none of them. No one knows for sure."

"But...I don' unnerstand."

His mind was swaddled in a pleasant fog, and he had to put effort into finding an explanation she would understand. "We have a lot in common with the great apes, like gorillas and chimps, but one thing that sets us apart from them is that we can think abstractly. At least, we think that's unique to humans. Who knows for sure?"

She shifted against him, restless when she failed to understand something, as he often was. "I still don' unnerstand."

His mind was disjointed and he was having a hard time keeping his thoughts along one coherent track. "When you look at a cloud and see a cloud, that's concrete thinking—you see something for what it is and nothing more. When you look at a cloud and see a dragon, that's abstract thinking."

"Oh, like my 'magination?"

"Exactly. We can't look into heaven or the underworld or anyplace else that people might go after they die, so we have to imagine it. We believe that people are the only ones who have a concept that life continues after death, just in a different form." He took a drink and patted her back. "People fear things they don't understand. That's a curse of the way we think. When people began to imagine things beyond their experience, the concept of a supreme being, what we call God, emerged. People were able to thank or to blame their god for the things they didn't understand, like why the sun came up or why no rain fell or what happens after death. We understand a lot more now than we did a million years ago, but we still use God to explain what we can't, like why people get sick or why bad things happen."

"People get sick b'cause of germs."

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. But that explains the 'how' and we understand that. It doesn't explain the why. We still use God to explain the things that scare us and to seek comfort in something beyond ourselves. The concept of Heaven brings reassurance to people that existence continues after death. That's how people cope with the uncertainty of death."

She was quiet for awhile as she churned that information in her mind. "So Gramma is in heaven? An' so is my other gramma?"

"Yes. That's what we believe."

"But what if we're wrong?"

"That's where faith comes in, baby. Faith is believing without seeing, without absolute proof that something exists."

"Oh. So...if I b'lieve it, then it's true?"

"Something like that."

"And D'nise will go to heaven, too?"

His gut clenched so tightly he almost threw up. "I think...I think you should go on back to bed, Maggie."

Puzzled, Maggie sat forward and looked at him. "But...Daddy, what's wrong? Is heaven a bad place?"

"No, honey. No, it's not. I just...It's hard for me to deal with losing someone I love."

"But doesn' heaven make you feel better?"

"I know it should. That's the purpose of faith, to provide reassurance during difficult times. I just..." How could he explain to her that his own faith had faltered many years ago? "It's harder for some people than for others. Faith exists by degrees. Some people have pure faith and put every part of their lives into the hands of God. Others have lost their faith entirely." He ran his hand over her hair and hugged her, which helped him to settle, though his gut still churned. "Children have the purest faith of all. Keep believing, baby. Hang onto it for as long as you can."

"What about you?" she asked softly. "Do you b'lieve, Daddy?"

Her simple question, asked in total innocence, harshly drove home the state of his own faith. But how could he ask her to have faith when he had none himself? "I don't know," he answered, not expecting her to accept his cop-out of an answer.

But once again, she surprised him. Getting onto her knees, she gave him a soft, loving kiss. Pressing her cool, little hand against the side of his face, she looked into the darkness of his eyes, barely illuminated by the moonlight. "It'll be okay, Daddy. I'll b'lieve for both of us." She slid from his lap. "C'mon, Zeus."

The puppy jumped up and followed her across the room while Bobby watched them leave. She stopped in the doorway. "Daddy? Do bad people go to heaven?"

"Uh, n-no. There's a special place of punishment for bad people."

"Good...cause if the mean lady is in heaven, I don' wanna go there."

"She's not, honey."

Satisfied for the moment, Maggie nodded. "I love you, Daddy. Good night."

She and Zeus were gone before he could form a reply. He heard their footsteps in the quiet of the house as they went up the stairs. Alone again, he picked up his glass, drained it and then filled it again.

Alex rolled over to shut off the alarm before it woke Bobby, but when she turned toward his side of the bed, it was empty. Thinking he was already up, she got out of bed, took a quick shower and dressed for work. The children were all still sleeping and she thought she might be able to leave them home with Bobby. If he was already up, he'd be fine with it. She went downstairs, surprised not to find him in the kitchen. He wasn't in the yard, either. Finally, she found him, sleeping soundly in the chair in the family room. Standing in the doorway, she watched him sleep, fully aware of the almost empty bottle on its side on the floor beside the chair.

She wanted to get angry, but the only emotion she could find was one of deep sympathy. He was taking Denise's illness very hard, and it broke her heart. There was no jealousy, no anger...just sorrow. She walked to the closet under the stairs and got a blanket because the house was cool. Covering him, she leaned over and gently kissed him. He didn't move. With a soft sigh, she went back upstairs to wake the children. Maybe it would be easier for her father or sister to come over to sit, but she wanted Bobby to sleep. Once the kids were up and at full volume, she doubted he would sleep through the ruckus.

Thirty minutes later, she was herding the kids and Zeus out the front door, Molly on her hip. Maggie handed the puppy's leash to Harry and ran into the family room. Alex peeked in the doorway, watching her trot over to the chair where her father slept. She leaned up and kissed him before hurrying back to her mother. "How did you know Daddy was in there?" Alex asked as she closed the door behind her.

"We hadda talk when I waked up and got some milk."

"What kind of talk?"

"About heaven."

Alex groaned to herself. "What about heaven?"

"I jus' wondered if Gramma is in heaven and if D'nise will go there, too."

"Oh, Maggie..."

Maggie finished helping Tommy buckle into his seat. "What, Mommy?"

Alex shook her head as she leaned in to buckle Maggie's seat belt over her booster seat. "Sometimes your little talks with Daddy get him thinking too much."

"He was al'eady thinkin' when I talked to him."

"What was he doing when you found him to talk to him?"

"Jus' sittin' inna fam'ly room, drinkin' the apple juice that's not apple juice. I didn' do somethin' wrong, did I, Mommy?"

"No, baby. Of course not. Daddy is just having a hard time right now because Denise is sick."

Maggie nodded. "I know. But it'll be okay, b'cause I have faith, for me and for Daddy."

Alex smiled at her oldest child and smoothed her hand over Maggie's curls. "Yes, I believe you do."

She closed the car door, and somehow, she felt that, just maybe, things really would be okay, eventually. Maggie was going to make sure of it.