At the time, it is true, but now? No-one misses Moriarty, Ahab, or Liberty Valence, or Casey Jones, or the little matchgirl, or Billy Budd. Even those who are mourned at the moment of their vanishment because of their role in a story are not missed afterwards. Holmes' public simply didn't like the plot. I do not miss Corridus, who died in the wainscoting, or the unlamented Shane.

But Mark Twain, whom I never met personally, I miss all the time. Likewise my own father, Jack KEnnedy, Robert Penn Warren, Ernest Hemingway, a childhood friend who died young--these and more I miss. The vacuum they left is as real as they were.

Only metaphysics can assuage my pain. Fortunately I have a great deal of metaphysics. Seems I have somehow acquired a lifetime supply.