Chapter 39: The Longest Night

On the longest night of the year, I lit the lighthouse lamp for the first time since September.

I didn't have to.

The tower had been closed since Thanksgiving, and the lamp was only ever a courtesy to the fishing boats.

But Rory had asked, and the harbour office had signed the form.

A hundred and twenty people had climbed the bluff in the dark with thermoses to watch.

Chan flicked the switch.

The great glass turned, and a white beam went out across the black water and touched the far headland.

Somebody on the lawn began to sing.

It was the Blue Hour chorus again, the one about the sea, and this time they sang it in Korean, as well as they could.

Hyunjin put his arm round my shoulders.

"You wrote the bridge," I said.

"I wrote it for a place like this. I didn't know it existed."

He kissed my temple in front of the Legion ladies.

One of them said "Oh, for heaven's sake" and wiped her eyes.

We left them to the cocoa.

We walked back down to the cabin, the three of us, through frost that cracked under my Docs.

The porch bulb Chan had replaced in October burned yellow ahead of us.

Neither of them asked about the ticket.

They had not asked once in two weeks, and the silence had a shape, like a third person at the table.

I let it walk beside us to the door.

Inside, the stove was banked.

The tabby, home again from Odette's, lay on the quilt like a hot-water bottle with opinions.

I turned the key in the lock.

Then I turned round and put my back against the door.

"Take your coats off," I said.

They looked at each other.

"Both of you. Slowly. I've been looking at you in front of a hundred and twenty people for an hour, and I want my own look."

Chan's eyebrows rose.

"You want a show."

"I want a long night."

Hyunjin shrugged out of his coat and let it fall.

He pulled his jumper over his head, and his hair came with it and fell back over his bare shoulders.

Chan unbuttoned his shirt without hurrying, holding my eyes, and peeled it off.

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