Re: [misha & jude: the capital]
It depends on what you believe. [That was the clearest explanation Misha could give the boy beside him. It was real simple, but things were sometimes simple as could be.] What comes depends on what you believe. [His voice, it took to soothing.] Even if you don't believe in a thing, it's fine and something comes. [And, for Misha, all death was beautiful. Dying, it was like birth. It wasn't easy, but there was beauty to all the hard things, the ugly things. He believed that real true and all the way to his bones. He forgot some recently, on account of being all mixed up in his own head, but he remembered it real clear there. Dying was part of living, and living was something he wanted real awful.]
I didn't mean if they looked bad. I just know folks don't like thinking on dying. It's likely the thing they all like least. [Which was plain talking, but there were only few religions left that looked on death as a beginning. Modern view was all 'bout ending and fear.]
They don't belong to folks and folks don't belong to them. The waiting ones, the watchers, they wait. It ain't like malakhim. Guardian angels, they got charges. The waiting ones just wait. [Which could be sounded awful, but malakhim were the ones at the bottom-most rung, and the watchers were considered real special. They had a real important charge, and they were the ones that always got the surprised faces and happy relief. They were seen, and malakhim never were, and that made them better some.] Most religions, they think there's just the one. But that's just on account of no one person ever seeing more than one. [He looked over at Jude real serious.] If you take to talking 'bout this, then folks are going to think you're insane and you'll end up right in Bellevue, so don't, not like it's fact. [Misha, he knew that real well from his own experience, and he stood, finally noticing he'd sat himself down on a crowded step.]
Next time, I reckon we should just do dinner. [He was funning, really he was, and he even tried for a little laugh.]