"I get the picture," Dean said glumly. "Meanwhile, the you up in my dream is-"
"...is probably usually naked and when not screwing, waiting on you hand and foot!"
"So Mrs. Martin is up there socializing with Mr. Martin in her heaven, unaware that Mr. Martin is balling his brains out with Annie across the hall-cloud-while Annie, in her heaven, is the happy homemaker up on Oak Street. I'm beginning to get the picture."
"Just take my word for it. Heaven is a perfectly marvelous place." She patted his knee. "Just be a good boy and you'll get there."
"It all sounds a bit complicated to me. It's a good thing God is omnipotent. Otherwise, he'd never be able to keep it all straight!"
"Of course it's a bit involved. You can't expect all this perfection to happen without a lot of work."
He nodded in agreement. "Maybe now things will be quiet enough so I'll have time to contemplate all those high level philosophical concepts. I can use the peace. It's been a terrible couple of weeks."
"Back to our 'don't get involved' philosophy?" she asked with a smile.
"Getting involved didn't do any good this time around. I'm not sure we didn't compound problems. At least Edith Shipton was alive before she visited Bird Song."
"You can't keep blaming yourself for that, David. Granted, we didn't stop her death, but she didn't kill herself through any direct fault of ours. Just because she threw herself at you hours before she died doesn't make you culpable."
Dean didn't answer as they left the restaurant, but the deep ache remained. Maybe he didn't stop Edith Shipton from taking her own life and maybe he couldn't have done so if he'd tried, but the bottom line scrawled in bold print said he stood idly by while it happened.
"We've got a inn to run," Cynthia said as she hugged his arm for the short drive home. "We're out of it. It's all behind us." It was a terrific speech and they both nodded in mutual agreement. However, neither entirely believed the pronouncement. But they did believe, fervently, that together they made an unstoppable pair, whatever the situation.