“Hold up, Nanna!” Greg said, the last to step out of the van.

Lynn was already at the stairs, climbing.

The door opened, and a man with a shaved head walked out. He extended his hand to Lynn. “Hello, Mrs. Roseworth. My name is SJ Rudd. But everybody calls me Rudd.”

“It is nice to meet you,” Lynn said. “Please tell me…”

“I think it’s probably best that the rest of you wait outside. She really only needs one visitor at a time,” Rudd said.

“Mom?” Kate asked, her two sisters coming to stand beside her. “Are you OK?”

Lynn nodded quickly.

“We’ll be right outside,” Stella said.

Rudd opened the door. The house was a typical bungalow, hidden, just as described, in the Florida Everglades. A bachelor pad, mostly. Except for the quilts thrown on the recliner and several other chairs.

“She gets cold,” Rudd said. “Even in Florida.”

Lynn stopped. “Does she still … remember?”

“Oh, she remembers all right. And even if she didn’t, all she’d had to do is look at you. You’ll see, the resemblance is pretty uncanny.”

“Where is she?” Lynn’s voice was thin.

“Right through here.” Rudd walked down the hall to a pair of French doors. He knocked softly on the glass. “Miss Blue?”

He opened the door, and the woman inside turned her wheelchair.

Lynn raised her hands to cover her mouth.

“My girl,” Blue said softly.

Lynn walked across the tile floor, her eyes swimming. She then rushed over, leaning down to embrace the old woman gently.

“I won’t break. I’ve waited my whole life for this,” Blue said. “Did you know it rained last night? A bad storm, my girl. Lightning. Lightning took you from me. And you see? It brought you back.”

Lynn sobbed. Rudd scrambled to bring over a chair, but Lynn was already on her knees.

“Mama. You’re really here.”

“I always have been,” Blue said, petting her hair. “He did it, in the end. Steven. That sweet man. He brought you to me.”

Lynn uncurled her hand, a flash drive in her palm.

“Did you bring them, Lynn? Your daughters? Your grandsons? My family?”

Lynn nodded, wiping her eyes. “They can’t believe it. I can hardly believe it.”

“I just … I just wish William was here,” Blue said, her voice cracking, her hand caressing Lynn’s cheek.

“Yes,” Lynn said, kissing her hand. “I wish he were here too.”

“We’re free, you know. It’s over. He did that for you. For all of us.”

Lynn stood, holding tight to her mother’s hand. The window was without wooden grilles, allowing the morning sun to shine through, absent of shadow.

EPILOGUE

The palm trees towered overhead against a sky bleached with thinning clouds, shifting islands in blue. A whiff of the ocean snuck through the haze of the smog, blowing across Wilshire Boulevard, prompting Quincy to open the sunroof and inhale.