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Back The Lighthouse Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. PART ONE
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. PART TWO
  13. 12
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 18
  18. 19
  19. 21
  20. 22
  21. 23
  22. 24
  23. 25
  24. 26
  25. 27
  26. 28
  27. 30
  28. 31
  29. 32
  30. 33
  31. 34
  32. 35
  33. 36
  34. 37
  35. 38
  36. 39
  37. 40
  38. 41
  39. 42
  40. 43
  41. PART THREE
  42. 44
  43. 45
  44. 46
  45. 47
  46. 49
  47. 50
  48. 51
  49. 52
  50. EPILOGUE

Kevin and Amy stayed by the tree, waiting as the white sheet of Polaroid film slowly bloomed with color.

“Thanks, Amy,” Kevin said, watching their faces emerge. “This is exactly what I need.”

Before returning to the barn, Amy gestured at the pen and paper in her dad’s hands and gave him a smile. “Say hi to her, okay?”

He smiled back. “I will.”

Sitting down with his back to the sycamore’s trunk, a blank page laid over his lap, Kevin closed his eyes and let his thoughts drift backward through the years, and to those still ahead. Then, after a minute of reflection, he took the pen in his hand and began to write:

To my dear wife,

Hopefully these words will somehow find their way to you, wherever you are.

The last few months have been more difficult than you can possibly know. Every day is a battle, every moment tinged with an unbearable ache. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to have you back, Helen, nothing I wouldn’t do to hold your hand again, to see your face and kiss your lips, to breathe in your scent, to just be around the woman that I cherished and adored. The world isn’t the same without you in it, my love, and it never will be.

As for Amy, she has struggled too. Soon after we lost you, she had an awful accident. It wasn’t her fault. You were her whole world, and she took your death extremely hard. All she wanted was an escape from her grief, but in doing so she made a terrible mistake, one that nearly cost her her life. Even now, just writing those words makes me feel sick to my stomach. Helen . . . for a while there, our precious baby girl actually left us. The doctor who saw her afterward, he said it was incredible she had no lasting damage, even said it was a miracle she woke up at all.

Now, I haven’t a clue what happened to Amy while she was gone, but I believe her returning was more than a random miracle. Somehow, I don’t know how, but I think you played a part in what happened that night. I think you helped our daughter find her way home.

Or maybe I’m crazy. Maybe we got lucky. Maybe the gods just decided to be kind. I don’t know. I guess I’ll never know. But what matters most is that Amy was given a second chance, which means I’ve been given a second chance too—a second chance to make you proud.