“Why? What do you mean?”

“Something’s happening to me.”

“I can help, but you’ve got to let me in.”

“No, I can’t. It’s too dark where I am.”

“Will, please!”

“No, it’s so dark.”

“Will, you’re scaring me.”

“You have to leave.”

“Leave? What do you mean I have to leave? And go where? Will, the doctor said we can try again. That gives us hope. Will, don’t you see it?”

“No, you have to leave me. We have to end it.”

“End what? Will, I don’t understand.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You can’t tell me to leave you and not tell me why! Will, I’m your wife! I deserve to know! So you tell me!”

“I’m cursed, Cathy! I killed Billy and Daisy Dolan, a boy and a girl. We lost our twins, a boy and a girl, a life for a life and a life for a life!”

“Oh God, no! No, Will, you can’t believe that! What happened was just a terrible accident, it can’t be connected.”

“It is connected. Don’t you see? It’s all connected to me and what I did! That’s why you have to leave! We can’t stay married anymore!”

“Please, Will! Maybe you could see the doctor again?”

“No. I know why this is happening and I can’t drag you down with me. You have to leave because you deserve a better life, Cathy.”

“Will, please.”

“I’m sorry, Cathy. I’m so sorry, but it’s for the best.”

-Chapter 21-

Southern Alberta

Fortin and his wife separated.

The very next summer, after the school year had ended, Cathy moved to Calgary and moved in with a friend. Then she got a teaching position. Eventually, she got a one-bedroom apartment and tried to rebuild her life without her husband.

At that time, Fortin remained in Lone Tree, a haunted cop.

Time passed.

On the date he’d signed the papers finalizing the divorce, Fortin took a long drive and ended up at a beautiful expanse of rolling range land southeast of Medicine Hat that stretched for as far as you could see.

Then he turned onto a narrow earthen road that wound to a stand of trees overlooking the distant and lonely Cypress Hills. A sign identified the spot as the Wild Rosewood Cemetery.

He parked and made his way through the burial grounds, stopping at the headstone for Trudy, Daisy, and Billy Dolan. Trudy’s family had fought to have Porter, their family name, replace Dolan, on the stone, but couldn’t because it was a legal matter concerning the legal identities of the deceased.

Fortin stood over the gravesite for five silent minutes.

Then he lowered himself and placed a bouquet of flowers he’d bought at the Medicine Hat Mall at the base. He touched his fingers along the granite stone then searched the eternal prairie.

Part Two