ice cream (4)

Drove two hours one time just to get a cone.” Ellie did not look up. “H e told me.” “He said the salt air made it taste better.” She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. “Even though it is the same ice cream you can get anywhere.” They lapsed into silence again. Grief, Ellie had learned, was not a thunderclap. It was a leak. Slow. Invasive. Soaking into everything when you were not looking. At first, it was casseroles and quiet phone calls and neighbors who looked at her like she might break in front of them.