All that you need to do, all that you must do, is to gather any souls of those who pass in the sea, and we will say a prayer to ease them on their journey back to Olodumare. This is your purpose. Nothing more, nothing less.

“But whether she said good-bye or not, Briar was about to become a person who existed without Emira. She’d go to sleepovers with girls she met at school, and she’d have certain words that she’d always forget how to spell. She’d be a person who sometimes said things like, ‘Seriously?’ or 'That’s so funny,’ and she’d ask a friend if this was her water or theirs. Briar would say good-bye in yearbook signatures and through heartbroken tears and through emails and over the phone. But she’d never say good-bye to Emira, which made it seem that Emira would never be completely free from her. For the rest of her life and for zero dollars an hour, Emira would always be Briar’s sitter.”