Jim drifted in a sea of darkness, tethered to the waking world by fragile threads of memory and sensation. The steady beep of machines and distant murmur of voices washed over him, muffled and indistinct.
Somewhere beyond the veil of unconsciousness, he knew there was pain and grief waiting to pull him under. But here, in the sheltered harbor of his mind, a different memory surfaced, vivid and achingly clear. A memory of sun and sea and the girl who had captured his heart at first glance.
He was eighteen, a high school senior visiting UCSD for the first time. The campus was a maze of unfamiliar buildings and winding paths, and Jim found himself hopelessly lost, his guitar case heavy on his back as he wandered beneath the swaying palms.
He was just about to give up and call his brother w
