I went back to Marrow Bay in June, eleven months after I had left it, for the opening of the Northbrook Preserve.
I hadn't planned to go. Ruth sent me the invitation, and I read it and put it in a drawer, and then three days before the ceremony I drove down anyway. It was a Saturday, and it was warm, and the harbor was blue, and the whole town had turned out for something they had wanted for a decade.
The town manager spoke and the town planner spoke and a woman from the state's office spoke, and then they cut a ribbon at the trailhead and everyone walked down to the water. I stood at the back of the crowd, and I didn't see Ellis anywhere, and I was glad.
Ruth found me at the edge of the trail. She was wearing a sun hat and carrying two paper cups of lemonade, and she handed me one.
"H
