Magritte initially worried that bringing her along to the hospital was a mistake. After all, Raf seemed to be taking the news of his uncle's sudden passing remarkabley well, and it felt somewhat selfish and stupid for her to be the one crying. But she couldn't help it. She cried most of the ride to the hospital, and again while the doctor explained to Raf the circumstances that lead to his uncle's death.
It had been a stroke that occurred at some point in the middle of the night. EMS was alerted to it when a friend of Uncle Bill had called them on his behalf. Apparently, Bill had dialed the most recent contact on his phone, and what ever he had said to his friend concerned her enough that she then called for an ambulance to his house. In the end, it hadn't been enough to save him. His death came quite suddenly, unexpectedly, and he did not languish.
Magritte can't remember if Raf responded with much other than an expression of relief that his uncle had not suffered--she was having difficulty paying attention to the conversation while attempting to temper her own response to better match Raf's even tone. The ride back home was one of relative silence. She didn't really know what was appropriate to say--her face was a mess of puffy redness and tears, while his face wore a look of introspective sobriety. Words of comfort didn't feel right--nor did it feel appropriate to try and inject brevity. And so, she sat quietly, and so did he.
Upon arriving at the apartment, Raf's first course of action was to...commence his usual "home from work" routine, shoes on the rack, keys on the counter, collect the cups and plates from breakfast off the table and into the sink, grab something to drink from the fridge, drop himself with a tired sigh onto the living room couch, and begin rolling a joint. And, upon taking a seat next to him, Magritte finally thought to ask, "are you holding up alright?" To which his response is basically...”Yeah” followed by body-wracking sobs,
And so he spends the rest of the day dissociating in Margie's arms.