Chapter 24: The Crossing

I walked to Alder Street from Linden, on foot, with my hands in my coat pockets.

It was a clear night, cold and dry, and the sky over the rooftops was full of stars.

The pavement was dusty and pale under the streetlights.

My shoes made a plain, dry sound.

In my right pocket I had a folded paper with a judge's signature on it.

The decree had come on Friday.

I had read it to the last page, including page nine, and signed at the bottom with my own pen.

It was the first thing I had ever signed with my eyes open.

I came around the corner of the dry cleaner at nine minutes past nine.

Declan was on the far side of Alder Street, under the bus shelter.

He had not crossed.

He stood at the curb with his coat open and one hand shut tight in front of him, and he looked at me across two empty lanes.

There was a crosswalk between us, with the paint worn white.

The streetlight hummed over it.

I stopped on my side of the road.

For a moment I could not make my feet move.

I stood on the exact corner, and I felt it come up through my shoes, the old cold, the wet road I had never seen in daylight.

Then I looked at him, standing so still, so carefully out of the way.

"Solveig," he said, across the street.

His voice carried easily on the dry air.

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