The fact is that Michael Furey doesn’t want Gretta to ever forget him. Not for a moment could he imagine her life without his memory, but the intensity that overwhelms Gretta at the conclusion of the story is only possible because she had forgotten him for so very long.
But what does it matter what he wants? He’s dead anyway. He’s dead.
I walk in circles around Durango Joe’s Coffee and remind myself that I am alive without Gretta. This is what my life is like without Gretta. This New Mexico sky and that red sky and this heat and that breeze.
I am still, all the time, surprised I can survive without her. That today goes on though she went on. I hold yesterday to the light as proof.
Every breath is a miracle. This feeling is strange and beautiful. This world is so strange and beautiful. It’s so strange and beautiful to be alive, instead of amongst the dead.