“I only knew you would be here. I have pictured this moment thousands and thousands of times, and you were always here.”

Lewis did not reply. He never spoke much. He smiled and kept on walking at her side, at a slow pace.

“I knew you would come for me,” she repeated, “but I never expected Rory would be here, too.”

She patted his head, and Rory shook his tail, exhilarated, still panting from his long run on the beach. The dying sun reflected in his shining eyes, two crescents stolen from the hidden side of the moon.

“He was there with me, you know,” said Lewis, still staring at the horizon. “He was in the car when it crashed. Since that day, we never separate.”

He was still so young, Lewis. His curls waved around his temples, as he always waited too long before cutting his hair. She, on the contrary, had changed. Her face had grown thinner, the pockets under her eyes wider. Her hair had turned dry and brittle like hay left under the sun for too long.

“Look at you, all handsome while I’m fading out. I’ve always thought you were handsome, but never found the courage to tell you so.”

“I figured. You were quite transparent.”

“Was I? I recall being afraid. I minded your opinions a lot. Now it all seems a bit childish to me.”

She was amazed at the details she could still remember. She had tried not to forget. She knew time would erase him as the tide had erased the prints of Rory’s paws in the sand. He had become a blurry silhouette, a pale ghost of the past with a long brown coat and leather gloves. Yet here he was standing in front of her, as precise and vivid as one of Demuth’s paintings.

“We lived through a century in which we never ceased to hold our breath. We feared nuclear wars, natural catastrophes, the end of the world… But I was never afraid; my world had ended long before that. It ended on the day of the accident. The rest was nothing but a painful stretch. Now I’m relieved this is the final chapter of my life, the missing page of it. I had to see you, to see you again.”

She felt a treacherous tear falling in the corner of her eye; she had promised herself not to cry, but now she could not contain herself. Lewis was gazing at her, the brush of his eyes hovering and gliding like the distant seagulls above a trawler, his silence eloquent.

“People, they told me it was a mistake. To all of them, I was wrong, and they felt superior because they thought they knew better. I wonder what their love is worth if they are so prompt to give it up.”

She had still not dared to look him in the eyes for fear he would become nothing but a vague illusion about to disappear. Rory cut her up, growling with discontent. She lacked the courage, even after all these years. She was not brave, but tenacious, and her resilience had made up for this flaw in her character.

“I couldn’t have blamed anyone who would have found themselves in my position but would have acted differently,” she added. “Though I was mad at your parents at first. They bought another dog. ‘Would you buy another son too, if you had the opportunity?’ That’s what I told them. I was being awful, and they were kind enough to forgive me when I apologized a few days later.”

She paused for a moment, taking a long, deep breath, admiring the waves battering the cliffs. The wind danced in her hair like the current between the corals underneath.

“But you know me, I never give up. I did what was best for me. I lived my life, and I have no regrets. I could not have stood resenting you for anything I wouldn't have done. And I never loved anyone else. No matter how much time passed. Time doesn’t matter, that’s what you realise when you have lived a little.”

She peered at him and to her surprise, his eyes were overflowing with tears. He opened his mouth, ready to answer, and it was at this precise moment that Rory chose to nick the branch out of his hand and make a run for it.

“That’s not how it’s supposed to work… I have to throw it first! Come on, Rory, come back now!”

But the dog only ran faster, his tail whipping the cloud of sand behind him to tease his companions. Lewis burst into a laugh and ran his hand through his hair, as he used to when he was nervous. His laugh was lighter than a brush of the wind that carried it away to guard it jealously. His laugh was lighter than a brush of the wind, that carried it away to guard it jealously.

Lewis ignored how bright he was. He was not a sun; suns burn to outshine the other stars, first to be remarked, and first to leave an emptiness when they set. His radiance was one of a lighthouse in a hidden cove, the light one must follow to find their way home, the light that remains after the night falls.

“It’s okay,” she said, “let him go, we’ll catch him up. You were about to say something”.”

“Ah, I forgot.”,” he said before looking away.

They both remained silent as a looming shadow crept about, replacing Rory’s presence. The atmosphere had abruptly become somber, as the blood sky was tinged with a black from the pits of the earth.

“You’re upset,” she said. “What is it?”

He seemed to hesitate. He glanced at her sideways, tapping his finger inside his palm.

“You were supposed to be… older.”

“What about you? You were almost twice as young!”

“It was different! It was an accident! Please tell me you didn’t…”

“I did not take my own life, if that is your concern.”

She was upset, too, yet her frustration was being drowned by a sorrow that had been lingering in deeper waters. Now that the sun had completely disappeared, a chill ran through her spine.

“I fell asleep by the window. It was snowing outside, and I was thinking about the last snowman I built with my father before he passed away. This is only my last dream.”

“But why? What is killing you?”

As fast as he had left, Rory rushed back, tongue in the wind, but this time Lewis ignored him.

“Pain.”

Her voice was bland and distorted, like she was hearing it from someone else’s perspective. Her voice was bland and distorted, as if she were hearing it from someone else’s perspective.

“Before I knew you, I did not love myself. I did not quite know I was alive. It might seem naive to say, but it is true. I was neither happy nor sad; I only existed in a hollow and colourless world that estranged me anywhere I went. And after you died, no matter how much time passed, no matter the people I surrounded myself with, nothing could fill the void. And the pain grew, every day. To be honest, I’m surprised I have outlived you so much.”

She had uttered these words so many times in her loneliness that they did not quite seem like her own.

“I’m sorry. I really wish things were different.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“You don’t?”

“What do you wish were different? You wish I didn’t love you? That’s one thing you will never take away from me. You wish I lived longer? Have you been listening to any of my words yet? I was a beheaded chicken, aimlessly running in a coop of apathetic hens. Oh, surely I wish the woman who hit you with her car had taken a different road that night, or that she wasn’t drunk, but wishing for the impossible is only a path that leads to more suffering, and I have suffered enough.”

Her head was feeling heavy. How mad at herself she was for saying what ought to have remained unsaid.

“I wish you did not have to endure it all alone.”

She sighed and sat down, Rory circling her with worry in his moon eyes.

“What about you, Rory? She whispered, and the dog came close enough for her to put her arms around his neck.

His fur was all wet and smelled of salt and seaweed.

“What would you have wished for, hm?”

He sat on his hind legs and cocked his head in a manner that was more human than animal. She untied her scarf, a dark purple cloth she had worn since his death, the death knot of a convict around her neck. It matched Rory’s speckled coat. He looked like a pirate.

“Want to throw it?”

Lewis sat down on her left, a bit distantly, a bit awkwardly. She shook her head.

“Then shall I?”

He raised his arm, and Rory lifted his head, ready to take another sprint after his favourite stick.

“If you do, this will end. Can’t you wait just a little bit more?”

“But it is time. Your heart is failing you. You don’t have the luxury to ask for more.”

“Do you think there is another? Do you think there is another life in which I have the luxury to ask for more?”

Rory’s ears dropped, and he whimpered, as if remembering a sad memory.

“I don’t know.”

She sighed again and crossed her arms, swinging on her crouched legs.

“I’m sorry I’ve picked a fight with you. That’s not how I want it to end. I wanted to thank you. What I had was so much more than many people will ever know, so much more than what I could have dreamed of. I shall forever be grateful to you.”

Tears began to run down her cheeks again, but she smiled this time. She snatched the stick and threw it as far as she could, so far that it disappeared into the night fog, and Rory vanished with it soon after. The shadow that had been looming around her drifted closer, caressing her shoulders. She dried her tears with the back of her hand, and the little drop of water shone under the light of the moon.

“I’m still a child, you see. Blinded by the night. But not scared, never scared.”

She finally gathered the courage to look him in the eyes. They were the siege of an honesty unmatched by the complex twist of pain, fear, and regret flowing in his mind, a twist that never got to crack the lens of kindness through which he viewed the world.

“We have to leave,” he muttered under his breath.

“You go after Rory. This is not my path.”

“Then what is?”

She turned to the sea, arms open.

“This is.”

The wind rose and she offered it her long grey coat of grief. The wind rose and she offered it her long grey coat of grief that fell off her shoulders.

“It would require a lifetime for me to tell you everything I’ve been yearning to tell you. And another one to listen. But since I can’t afford it, then… farewell.”

She kissed him on the cheek and ran toward the ocean, free. Lewis waved his hand, and she replied, overfilled with joy. Then he turned as a friendly bark called him in the distance.

As she entered the cold waters, the wind carried away a laugh, and the shadow of Rory in the sand.