Fiction Vortex - August 2013 Read online

  ~~~~~

  The next afternoon they buried Jake in the village plot up on the hill among the flowers. Candace sat with him after the others had gone back to work.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "Sorry this happened to you." She felt heavy and tired. Waking in the morning had been the worst, worst day of her life. All over the memory book.

  At least Ettaclara didn’t have it.

  Sitting and looking over the bay, Candace told Jake about Richard. It felt so hard to tell him now, as a ghost. She knew she would never feel forgiven.

  She had the memory book back. The best swimmers among the village boys and girls had found it just off the beach. It still worked.

  As she told Jake about her indiscretions, she let the memory book record it all. Would it help? Would she feel purged? She didn't know.

  What she did know was that she was going to take it up to the lighthouse and go into the deepest passage and hide it away. If she ever needed it, ever needed to remember Samuel and Jake and the others, it would be there.

  Somehow, she didn't think she would need it.