Sarah and Karyn met back up in front of the school to go home.
"Well," said Sarah, "Tell me all about this guy. I'm dying to hear about it!"
Karyn started, guiding Sarah to the same spot on the wall where Jon had first told her about the stone. "Well, Jon was this great guy who used to be my best friend in the world..."
"What? When was this?"
"Let me talk, Sarah. This is going to take a few minutes to get there; it's a little complicated, especially since I don't know the end of it."
Satisfied for the moment that it would make sense, Sarah listened.
So she went on to describe Jon a bit, and how they were such good friends for so long. Every time she felt like Sarah was going to interrupt (how did she know? Were they really such good friends?), she reached over and put a finger on Sarah's lips.
Finally, she got to the beginning of the week. "So, right after my family got back from our annual trip to the mountains, I met up with Jon, here."
"But you and I," Sarah started.
"I know; or, rather, I don't, but I believe you. This is where it starts getting really weird, in the original sense of that word. You probably won't believe me at first, but I'll prove it to you.
"So, he and I chatted for a while about nothing much, but then he told me that his grandfather had just died."
"But when we met up, you were upset about your grandfather..."
"Oh God! I saw the letter, but I didn't put it together. Oh, no! What have I done?!?"
Now Sarah was really confused. Her best friend was crying again. But this time not about this Jon guy, whoever he was. Now she's crying as if she'd just found out about her grandfather, and as if she'd caused it. What can I do? Sarah thought to herself.
"Karyn, you weren't around when he passed away. What could you have possibly had to do with it? Besides, he was what? 95?"
"Ninety-six," Karyn mumbled. She was mostly quiet for another minute, just mumbling to herself.
"God," Karyn croaked out. "I killed him. Let me try to finish. You'll understand."
A couple of minutes later, after wiping her eyes, she continued...
