Helena decided to ride with Bette, having lent Tina her car for the trip home.

The group of friends had finished spreading Dana’s ashes on the grounds of her old summer camp. Alice was driving back to Dana’s apartment, while Jenny, Carmen, Shane and Max were making their way to their home. Kit drove with Helena and Bette. She stopped to kiss Helena gratefully on the cheek as Helena held the passenger side door open for her, offering to sit in the back for the duration of the trip home.

Bette sat behind the steering wheel without turning the ignition, and suddenly burst into laughter. Kit, thinking that her sister was having a hysterical reaction, caused by grief, reached over to rub her back.

Bette sat straight again, wiping her tears and trying to stop laughing. “Kit, I’m fine, I was just remembering Shane’s story about Dana’s acid trip. And then I had a sudden image of Dana kissing Jenny and I can’t get it out of my head. I’ve just been wondering for the last half hour, how strange that must have been.”

Helena sat looking out the window during this exchange, smiling to herself and shaking her head. What a strange life. She caught Bette’s eye in the rear view mirror and showed off her dazzling smile. “All right back there Helena?”

“I’m fine Bette. I’ve just been enjoying hearing all of your stories about Dana. I obviously haven’t been part of your family for long, and it’s been quite an amazing day, to hear the stories of how your friends have come to be so close.”

Kit nodded in agreement. This had been an incredibly moving experience. Although, Dana’s death was a reminder of just how far gone the world they lived in was becoming.  When she voiced her thoughts, Helena asked what she meant. They spent much of the trip debating the merits of the medical system.  Helena thought that Dana’s death was not so much a lesson learned, but a cosmic mistake—a cosmic ‘fuckup’ as Kit put it.

“What do you mean, ‘cosmic’?” Bette was curious, glancing from time to time to catch the intense blue eyes of Helena in the rearview.