Chapter 15: Ten Years Old

I walked down to the edge of the shore, where the sand met the ice, and stopped there.

"You want to know why," I said. "Not tonight."

"Marit..."

"Watch her hands. Watch where she looks when somebody says Eli's name."

He was quiet for a moment.

"And tonight I need something from you," I said. "The wolves you keep at the Moon Hole. Send them home."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to stand at it."

The wind moved his open coat.

"That ice is the thinnest on the lake," Garrick said. "You've never even..."

"I know what I've never done."

His jaw worked.

Then he bent and picked up his lantern.

"I'll tell them it's for your wake," he said. "They'll go."

He walked south across the dark ice with the small light swinging, and I watched until it reached the far shore.

Petra was waiting in the pines behind me.

She had come over on a snowmobile with its lamp off, and she took one look at my face and didn't ask what had happened with Lars.

"Still want to?" she said.

"Yes."

"Then get on."

Lars stood at the top of the path with my boots warmed in his hands.

I took them from him.

"I'm doing this part alone," I said.

"I know."

"Stay on the shore."

He nodded once.

His eyes were tired, and he didn't try to touch me.

"I'll be here when you come back," he said.

I got on behind Petra, and we crossed the lake in the dark.

She cut the engine two hundred yards from the yellow rope, and in the silence I could hear the ice ticking as it settled.

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