On the drive to the beach we laughed about the size of our campfire we would have since we all had axes and a chainsaw. Rene bucked the driftwood while Will and I split the chunks and we all high fived over the smell of fresh cut cedar. It was a late rainy evening so we needed the water proof red cedar and we only had yellow. 45 minutes of fire building techniques and we still didn't have anything hot. So I poured some gas on the tiny flame to speed things up but the fire crawled up the fumes into the jerry can and I threw the blaze. With no threat of an explosion, I hung my head at the melodramatic scene of red plastic melting and laughed. That's when Will placed the logs around the flame and built the second largest fire ever.

"I’m trying to ask simpler question's, but I can’t find a simple question?" I say to Alexa, frustrated.

She is silent at first, then begins. "Yesterday I visited my aunt in the hospital. She maybe weighs 85 lbs now… and what I realized is that as we die we literally just become more of Love. There is only Love left. I can't even begin to explain the weight of the experience to be there with her, to hug her, and to hear her tell me how proud she is of me. I am sitting with all this and going to write it into a piece this week. In terms of simple questions, fuck yes, the questions are goddam simple. How can we be kinder? How can I be more of Love?"

"Damn," I say woken by how potent her words are, knowing I can be a better me as she guides my finger towards myself.

Shot for Alexa Mazzarello's unreleased website. See the rest of the series here.