They Laughed When I Left, So I Came Home the Town's Doctor novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Loft

I held it together until the last person had shaken my hand.

They came in a long line across the rocks.

There were the charge nurse, the man from bed four, and women I had not seen since high school.

Some of them cried.

One told me she was sorry.

One told me she had always known.

Kaarina walked up the beach to her silver car without anyone beside her.

She did not look back, and nobody followed.

When the tide of people finally thinned, I slipped around the end of the boathouse where the shingle ran down to the water.

I sat on a flat rock with my coat pulled tight.

Then I put my face in my hands and shook.

I had expected to feel triumph.

I felt tired and sick and seven years old, and I missed Leena so much I could hardly breathe.

"She'd have loved that," said a voice above me.

I looked up.

Paavo stood on the shingle with his hands in his peacoat pockets.

He sat down beside me without asking and handed me a paper napkin from his pocket.

It was greasy, and smelled of fish.

I laughed, wetly, and blew my nose.

"I've been on the water for fifteen years," he said. "I've seen a lot of storms. That was the best weather I ever watched from shore."

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