There was an old woman who lived alone on the hill by the sea near the old cemetery. She was awfully lonesome, almost always, but she took walks on nice days, humming tunes to herself and feeding the birds. Not uncommonly she would pack a lunch and walk to the cemetery, eating there and talking out loud to herself, or the birds, or the dead. Or maybe all three at once, she didn’t mind. She was called Loretta. On one such day Loretta was feeling particularly lonesome. “Oh, but I wish I had some company,” she said. No sooner had she spoken than she noticed a pale man sitting on the grass right beside her. “May I come onto the blanket with you?” he asked. “My, but that’s strange. Just a moment ago I was all by myself. Where did you come from?” “I came from the grave,” the man replied. “My name is Daniel. May I?” Loretta prepared some room for Daniel on the blanket. “You know, I come here and talk sometimes. To the dead, sometimes. But I never really thought someone would reply. Maybe it’s just that no one has ever bothered.” She noticed his awful paleness. “You look terrible,” she added. “Have something to eat. How about this apple?” Daniel smiled. The day wore on and their friendship grew. The pair shared stories of long ago, laughed together and traded songs. In the joyful conversation Loretta could almost forget she’d been alone at all. As the afternoon passed, Daniel became more and more spirited, and his cheeks flushed pink with liveliness. Loretta, for her part, became more wan and tired, but boy was she happy. As the sun was finding its red evening light, the companions’ complexions met at about the middle, which is to say they both looked a bit foggy around the edges. But, neither particularly noticed and if they noticed at all they didn’t seem to care. When the wind began to blow Loretta thought of her lonely home and didn’t want to go. “Why don’t I come with you,” offered Daniel. “We’ll wish the day ‘goodnight’ and wake your old piano.” It was a wonderful idea. Though, for the first time now Loretta noticed the remarkable change in her complexion, which was faded like the evening. “Pretty as the coming moonlight,” Daniel smiled with red lips. Once home, the couple joined hands and began to dance. Loretta couldn’t remember the last time she had been dancing, and oh! how she loved it. The pair rocked and reeled and hollered. Quicker and quicker they went, shaking the dirt from the wooden floor of the small room. Must be the piano couldn’t bear to be left out of the fun, for it began playing a delightful tune, loud and lively! They carried on like that late into the night, on and on, until the sun woke up. Now, in the light of a new day, Loretta saw herself for what she had become– a dancing pile of bleak white bones! Daniel, looking lively as he had a hundred years ago sang out, “Aren’t you beautiful!” And so she was. And so was he... They took one another by the bones and danced back to the graveyard where they said their goodbyes. “You won’t be lonely anymore, my dear. You’ll have the dead to dance with.” Loretta’s gumless teeth chattered back her thanks. Daniel moved into the cottage on the hill by the sea near the cemetery, to pass his strange days in solitude, taking walks on nice days, humming tunes to himself and feeding the birds. Loretta had plenty of company in the ground; the grubs proved excellent story-tellers and the grass that whispered by the stones shared her secrets. And every now and again for the rest of their deaths she and Daniel would meet on the hill by the sea near the old cemetery. Many nights they’d dance, and oh! how they danced under the big-bellied moon! But other nights they were quieter, and then they’d sit and watch the sun go down, and the stars awake, and the shivering veins of night draw over. And on nights like that, well, whatever that strange and handsome pair would wonder on, none can say for sure.