Ed seemed to take for granted that we had not loved each other passionately. In the park in 1979, he told me that Skip, my replacement, was the first person he ever loved. Ed was moved to tears by his own feelings. To my expression, he replied, “You loved me that way?” I was not sure I did. With Skip, Ed began to laugh with his hand in front of his mouth like a Japanese woman. His life then was as harsh as any obsession with any jerk, and now Skip is dead and Ed is destroyed and here I am growing angry next to his corpse because he is leaving me yet again.