It gets easier.
Barbara, Scott, and Ephraim are wonderful people, and I'm glad I got to know them. We spend most of our days in the Stone Age--Barbara's an anthropologist--or orbiting red dwarfs--Ephraim loves them--and I'm so caught up, I forget to remember.
But then--there are the nights when Ephraim's bed is empty and Scott's door is closed. Those nights, Barbara and I meet by unspoken consent in the kitchen and we share a cup of warm milk. I pretend not to notice her sniffles, and she pretends not to notice my eyes are red.
But it is getting easier.