Page 111 (1/2)

Her eyes go to the ocean again, and with them fixed there, she murmurs, “Did you remember me? I heard you were here when…”

When they found her She can’t say it

I s again, and take her hand

“You sure you want to talk about that, Siren?”

“I asked”

My thumb strokes her smooth hand

“Yeah, I do” When she says nothing, I go on, trying to tread lightly “That’s a lot of what stuck with uess just like…the mood of people How focused they were How everybody tried to sort of stay busy There was like…this weight hanging behind things Things likebread Nobody told me exactly what had happened, so I didn’t really know”

Dad told otten lost, someone important And I could tell he was upset He was upset the whole ti kind of nervous about that Because I didn’t knoas wrong Just that so was

“I saw you,” I finally say “When you came back Dad was on that boat”

Chills cover my skin as I remember how everybody looked when the boat pulled up to the dock, and so her I don’t knoon the dock with ine probably at least a handful, despite it being nighttilance, when they first saw her, they all must have known that it was only her

I re not to And soht there by her, too, and he looked really weird Really upset

I look at Finley’s face and find her eyes a little wide That’s all, though; besides that, she looks impassive as she stares out at the ocean “Didn’t know that I didn’t know you tere here at all Not for several years I suppose it didn’t seem quite relevant—or perhaps a shade too relevant Your father’s presence here then”

I want to tell her how the gliony: that bright blaze roaring like a fire in her dead, sallow face I couldn’t place it, so I rolled that memory over like a pebble in ht the same soundless blaze in my eyes in a mirror

“When I thought of coe to keep my voice steady

She looks at , What? Then it’s back out at the ocean I squeeze her hand