"It's okay," she said with a sigh. "He would have hated ending up in a hospital or one of those places for old people. He'd been living on the streets too long to feel safe in a place like that. I think he must have been happy to die in his sleep."

She considered for a moment, staring up at the sky. "Sometimes I think that he maybe went to one of the beautiful places in his stories when he died. I hope so."