Chapter 10: The Keys

Birgit's question stayed in my head all the way down the hill.

I did not go home after the bonfire.

I walked to the harbor in the dark with my sash still on, and stopped in front of Fjeld Boat Works.

My father had built forty-one boats in that shop.

Now the front door had a padlock on it, and Torvald's lumber sign was nailed under the window.

I put my hand flat on the cold wood.

"You'll catch your death," Lasse said behind me.

He had come up the dock path without making a sound.

He stood in the lamplight with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"I saw you leave the field," he said. "I wanted to see you got somewhere."

"I got here."

"I can see that."

I took off the sash.

"I said it to you on the dock," I said. "Last Friday. That I remembered."

"You did."

"I never said it all."

"No," Lasse said. "You didn't."

"Then I'm going to."

He didn't move.

"We buried him on a Thursday," I said. "It rained."

"Torvald came up to you in the parking lot while I was standing right there, and held out his hand."

My voice was steady, which surprised me.

"And you gave him my father's keys. You didn't look at me. You didn't say a word to me."

"You just turned and walked off, and you weren't at the lunch."

"No," Lasse said.

"Do you know I made a list? Of everyone who didn't come?"

"I'd guess I was on it."

"You were at the top," I said.

He looked at the dock boards, and then at me.

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