Thank you to everyone who posted comments on the story, and especially to those who thought it was a fitting tribute to Yael. Thanks especially to Hazel for posting Yael's most poignant contribution to OUATIM, Dan Scardino mourning the loss of the woman he loved. That particular post was very much in my mind when I wrote this story, as was your post about Yael herself on
this thread , Hazel, from which I drew the inspiration for the passage about letting time slip away.
Over the days since we heard about Yael's murder, I've heard several people comment that they found the news hard to deal with - that they were more upset than they'd expected to be. When an RL friend dies, there are things we can do: attend the funeral, send flowers, send condolences to the family, talk about her with friends and swap reminiscences and so on. In this case, little of that applies. And so it was out of mingled feelings of acute sadness at the loss of a lovely young woman who I didn't know anything like as well as I would have liked to, and frustration at feeling that there was nothing I could do to express that sadness, which led me to write the story. I'm touched that people thought it was an appropriate tribute.
Wendy
PS: I forgot to say yesterday: thank you to Gerry for pointing out that it was Sean McCarthy, not Mallory. My fault for relying on the script!
