Chapter twenty-two: We've Found Her

Another sunset. Another day passed.

Low carved another line into the small boulder at his feet and then stood back to view the tally marks. He tried very hard not to think of it as a grave. That familiar ache in his chest and his gut told him that he wasn't trying hard enough. But that tiny grain of hope still remained. The hope that he was marking the days until she came home.

Shuffling footsteps approached behind him but he didn't turn around. "Nora, can't I have just one hour of peace?" he asked, exasperated.

"No," she replied in a deadpan tone.

Low rubbed his eyes and glanced over his shoulder at her. It might have been the dim light messing with his vision but Nora almost looked pleased about something. "What is it?"

Her beautiful face, glowing in the fiery light from the horizon, broke into a smile. She just stood there, the breeze whipping her white summer dress into a frenzy around her as if it were alive.

"Nora?" he prompted, his heart suddenly thundering in his chest.

She took a measured breath and then she spoke to him. The words slammed into his ears as sure as if she had wielded a baseball bat. He almost had to ask her to repeat them but the weight resonated deep within his soul so that he knew exactly what she had said.

"We've found her."