Chapter 23: One Afternoon in Seattle

It was drizzling in Seattle, the soft kind that never quite decides to be rain.

I stood on the sidewalk outside our credit union at two in the afternoon, eleven hours after leaving Seoul, with a carry-on and a pen.

The branch manager held the door for me.

Colson was already inside, sitting in a plastic chair under the clock, in a jacket that didn't fit him anymore.

He had lost weight in three weeks.

He did not stand up.

"Sign here," the manager said, "and here, and initial there."

I signed my name to the closing of the house fund where I had stood at the kitchen counter and typed in our first deposit.

The balance was zero, and the line under it said "Closed."

Colson signed the same pages in a hand that wobbled.

Neither of us said a word.

When he finished, he capped the pen, laid it on the desk and looked at me for a long moment.

"Thanks for coming," he said.

"Goodbye, Colson."

He nodded.

He picked up his bag and went out through the other door, and that was the last time I saw him.

I stayed to shake the manager's hand.

Then I pushed open the glass door and stepped out onto the street.

Two people were standing under the awning.

Eli had his faded Mariners cap in both hands, turning it by the brim.

Daphne stood a little behind him in a gray raincoat, with her hair pulled back and no makeup.

They had been waiting for a while, because the awning was dripping and neither of them had moved from under it.

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