Chapter 23: Twilight at the Rim

At six-thirty the next evening, my father climbed out of his truck at Discovery Point with a paper bag of sandwiches.

He wore his one tie and his canvas work boots.

My aunt from Spokane got out of the passenger side with a thermos and a wool blanket.

"You didn't have to dress up," I said.

"I've waited my whole life to see this lake," Dad said. "I'm wearing the tie."

I hugged him until the bag crinkled.

The gray-haired woman had come too.

She stood at the stone wall with her purse over her arm and a pair of binoculars around her neck.

"I told the club I'd report back," she said. "They have a pool going on the color."

The sky was clear from rim to rim.

Eli stood a little apart from us in his green jacket with the badge pinned on straight.

He had not stopped looking at me since we got out of the truck.

I wore the green dress, my mother's watch and my own boots.

At seven-fifteen the first couples began to line up along the wall.

At seven-thirty somebody's child asked if the lake would be mad if it was late.

"She'll be right on time," Eli told her gravely. "She's very particular."

I walked down to the wall and stood between my father and him.

Eli put a hand in his jacket pocket.

He took out a stub of white candle, the kind sold in the park store for the lodge tables, and held it up.

I looked at it.

My throat tightened.

"I know," he said. "I'm not asking you to put your hands over it. I thought you might want to do it yourself."

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