story: The Way We Live Now 

author: Susan Sontag

year: 1987

where: Abu Dhabi, after lunch

note: my experiences witnessing death have been much lonelier, full of less people, the streams of visitors tapering off as things get bad, then a parade of interest and sympathy when things are gone and orderly again

a line: “But this isn’t going to go on forever, Wesley said, it can’t, they’re bound to come up with something (they, they, muttered Stephen), but did you ever think, Greg said, that if some people don’t die, I mean even if they keep them alive (they, they, muttered Kate), they continue to be carriers, and that means, if you have a conscience, that you can never make love, make love fully, as you been wont–wantonly, Ira said–to do.”