have mattered in my sending you astray, but I think it would have. I hope so. Love for now and always, Jeremy.' That's the whole text,' Evangeline said quietly. 'I'm so sorry.'
I stood in my box in the air above an island, looked down the strand, and considered Evangeline's call. With the sudden clarity of revelation the sun seemed to light the world from every direction at once, nothing had shadows. The water stretched forward like a vast carpet of green, the white of the sand, blinding. I looked at Ava and Harry, saw the concern in their eyes, shot them a thumbs up, It's all right, everything's all right. Much as I tried to contain it, a smile spread across my face. I lifted the phone back to my ear.
'You almost got it perfect, Jeremy; the intonation, the rhythm. But Dr. Prowse never goes by the name Evangeline.'
Silence from my caller.
I said, 'She calls herself Vangie. It's always Vangie.'
I listened for any evidence of a kindred being at the far end of the connection. With waves in the distance and breeze through my hair, I pressed my palm against one ear, the phone against the other, and listened hard into the silence. Then, for a slender moment, the breeze fell and the waves poised soundlessly between rush and retreat. I closed my eyes and discerned the lightest hint of breathing, as near as the blood in my veins, as far as the burned- away years: I heard the swift and shallow breaths of a frightened child all alone in the dark.
My voice said, 'I love you, brother.' Then I hung up on the past. At least until tomorrow.
