the day he first told me he was starting to disappear i didn't believe him & so he stopped & held his hand up to the sun & it was like thin paper in the light & finally i said you seem very calm for a man who is disappearing & he said it was a relief after all those years of trying to keep the pieces of his life in one place. later on, i went to see him again & as i was leaving, he put a package in my hand. this is the last piece of my life, he said, take good care of it & then he smiled & was gone & the room filled with the sound of the wind & when i opened the package there was nothing there & i thought there must be some mistake or maybe i dropped it & i got down on my hands & knees & looked until the light began to fade & then slowly i felt the pieces of my life fall away gently & suddenly i understood what he meant & i lay there for a long time crying & laughing at the same time.

-from 'disappearing' over at storypeople.com