“It’s a waste of time,” I fume. Outside the truck window, Main Street floats by. I notice how some of the buildings are being prepared for demolition, but others are already being restored. Heaps of debris line the street here and there, surrounded by orange cones and fluttering tape. It’s a sunny day, and the whole thing feels hopeful somehow.
As we pass a small park, I catch a glimpse of a familiar discolored anorak. Fear jump-starts my heartbeat, but I push it back. “Stop here for a sec,” I tell Luc.
He looks puzzled but pulls over and stops by the entrance to the park. Sadly, getting out of the tall truck while managing a brace and a crutch proves difficult, but I’m determined not to wait for Luc to get out and help me. Once I’m semisolidly on the ground, I hop past the park gate.
“Hey, Tony!”
Behind me, I hear the door slam as Luc gets out of the truck in turn and then his quick steps as he jogs up to me. “Steph, is this a good idea?” he mutters.
I don’t know. I doubt it. But I’m running out of options, so…
Tony turns around. He looks even more haggard than usual, and fresh mud streaks cover the front of the anorak. There’s a vacant look in his eyes when he faces me. “What do you want?”
From the sound of it, he once again has no idea who I am.
“You scared me in the forest the other day,” I say.
His reaction takes me by surprise. His face crumples. He pulls his head in between his rounded shoulders, and for a moment, it looks like he’s about to start crying. “I didn’t mean to,” he mutters.
I can’t make out the words at first and ask him to repeat them.
“I didn’t mean to!” he yelps.
“I know you didn’t mean to,” I say, trying to sound soothing. “But I could have gotten seriously hurt, you know.”
Tony’s face twitches. The scar on his temple looks deep and dark.
“Steph,” Luc mutters by my side, “I think we should go.”
“Wait,” I snarl at him under my breath before turning back to Tony. “What happened in the forest, Tony? Can you tell me?”
“It wasn’t my fault,” he sobs. “She made me do it. I’m so sorry.”
“Who? Who made you do it?”
He casts a nervous glance around, as if someone might be eavesdropping. “You know who.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Michelle,” he whispers loudly. “It was Michelle. Everyone knows about Michelle.”
“Tony, Michelle has been dead for forty years,” I say. “It can’t have been Michelle.”
His eyes glaze over, and he starts muttering to himself.
“Have you seen Laura around, Tony?”
“Steph, be careful,” Luc says next to me.
But Tony’s gaze seems to focus, if only for a few moments. He raises his head and stares at something over my shoulder.
“He has no idea,” Luc murmurs with a sigh.
But I turn and follow Tony’s gaze. Right in front of the park, across the street, is the town church. PAROISSE DE SAINT-DAVID-DE-HIMMEROD say the fading letters above the tympanum.
“She was there? At the church?”
Tony stares me down. Then he throws his head back and laughs.
“Let’s go,” Luc says.
“No. Let’s go inside and ask. Maybe he’s on to something.”
Luc looks skeptical. “Laura O’Malley? At church? Then I’ll have seen everything.”
He helps me across the street.
“When people find themselves facing the end, they do surprising things,” I say, as we painstakingly climb the church steps.
Luc shrugs. I can see the disbelief plain as day on his face, but he holds the church door open for me anyway.
Inside, it’s dark and almost as cold as outside. The clinking of my crutch against the floor is embarrassingly loud, echoing down the central aisle. The weekly service was yesterday, and so the place is completely empty. The sun outside filters through the dusty stained glass.
“Hello?” I call out, feeling awkward.
For a few moments, there’s no answer and no hint of any kind of human presence in the church at all. I get ready to turn around and limp back the way I came when I hear steps behind the altar, and a mild-mannered voice asks, “Can I help you?”
The priest is an old man with close-cropped hair that’s so white it’s hard to even guess what color it had once been. His face is deeply lined but pleasant. I feel doubly awkward that I’ve grown up in this town yet not only am I seeing him for the first time, he also clearly has no idea who I am. This whole idea was foolish.
