Before she crossed over, X was in synch with all things to such an extent that the strange and spirited girl we have grown to know and love vanished in the blink of an eye. Little Herbie, too. There was a time when to disappear was what she craved more than anything, but this was different. This was a rebirth, and like all life, before it there was a preceding state of nothingness as ethereal as the glow of distant stars. As the two of them flickered in and out of existence, the routines of those up and down the land passed the same as they always had. And yet there was change. To the rest of the world, it had happened invisibly—they hadn't seen a single thing—but she had weathered a long and turbulent storm, and for the first time in what felt like forever, she was about to embrace life as if it were not meant to be endured but celebrated. Through the door she had flown, and now these wings she had grown were about to take her where she desired to be more than anywhere.