I appreciate your kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Sadness is a deep part of how we contrast emotion--the way that shadows are the only way we can make out shapes in the light, sadness is the only way we can know what joy feels like. This story came of a dream I woke from in tears. On describing the dream to my wife, she said, "You need to bottle that." So, with her help, I captured the dream in this story. She wrote the parts with Anna's point of view and thoughts.