I'm really glad you found it so moving, but I'm not quite sure how to react to this. I think some of your response is not something I intended (and actually something I was working to avoid.) I'm torn on what to say, though, as there's only so far authorial intent goes -- the story becomes its own beast once it's out there. I'll have to see if others are willing to talk in such depth about how they understood it, and perhaps think about rewriting (parts of?) it.