She Discovered Too Late novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Hill in the Snow

The crematorium gave her a plain box of grey cardboard, about the size of a bread box.

It was heavier than she expected. I saw it in the way her arms dropped when the man set it in them.

"We have urns," he said. "Some families like a choice."

"He asked for no stone and no name," Miriam said. "This is fine."

"Would you like someone to carry it to your car?"

"No."

She carried it herself, down the steps and across the lot, with both arms around it and her chin on the lid.

She set it on the passenger seat and put the seatbelt across it.

I got in the back, where I always sat now, and watched the side of her face all the way to Pine Road.

It had snowed in the night.

The water tower stood at the end of the road with a white crust on its legs.

The hill behind it was one clean slope without a footprint on it.

Miriam parked and sat with the engine off.

Her phone buzzed once in her pocket. She took it out, turned it face down on the dash and left it there.

Then she lifted the box and got out.

The wind was cold and steady.

She climbed in her good coat and her office shoes, and twice she slipped and caught herself with one hand in the snow.

I walked beside her. She did not know it, and I stayed near anyway.

I kept thinking of the words on the back of Arlene's hand.

Somebody walks beside her.

I was the only one doing it, and I was no use.

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