The Light That Was Left
Noah sat alone in the dialysis ward. He glanced over at the nurses’ station. There was a new nurse and she was nice but she kept to herself. He stared at the television set, then at the empty space where Purv usually sat.
Six months had passed since the storm.
Since Ray Bowdoin was killed and Samson Lumen was killed.
Folk said that maybe the Lord’s work weren’t as mysterious after all; cause and effect in its purest form. When Pastor Lumen learned of his son’s actions he suffered another stroke, this one so bad he weren’t likely to recover.
Raine had been taken to Mayland; she was close to death that night. If Noah hadn’t heard those gunshots it might’ve been different. The newspapers said he was a hero all over again.
The morning that followed saw Noah get up early and walk down the stairs and straight out the front door to stand in the yard. He stopped still and stared up at a sky fired with all the colors, a sunrise so beautiful maybe it slowed time awhile.
He’d looked across the street and seen Bud Grierson and his wife standing side-by-side and watching too. And then he’d heard the Dumans’ front door open and saw them follow.
The reporters had it that near every person in Grace woke early that morning, didn’t even notice the damage the storm had done ’cause they couldn’t see nothing but the dawn of new light.
Noah was about to holler for his grandmother when Black pulled the cruiser up front. And then Black told Noah about Purv and Noah had run to the Buick.
Black had stood there beneath that open heaven and watched him go.
The summer cloud had finally lifted from the town of Grace, but an even darker one remained.
*
Summer was buried in the grounds of St. Luke’s, beneath an Okame cherry that flowered so pretty folk stopped for a moment to notice it.
Noah sat alone at the back during the service, watching Pastor Bobby talk, then listening to a recording of that same music Summer had played that day that everyone still spoke of, each note reaching a place inside of him that brought him closer to a girl he wished he’d known.
Halfway through, when Ava was breaking and Joe had his eyes closed tight, the plastic sheeting blew from the large hole in the slate roof of the old church, and sunlight spilled in as the music lifted up toward the sky.
Raine had left town with her parents shortly after. She hadn’t spoken to him since that night; she hadn’t spoken to nobody.
Black said they had kin someplace near the coast, so when Noah closed his eyes at night he saw her riding in the back of a truck down Route 65, passing the plains, her hand out the window like it was a bird.
*
There was a new painting on the wall. Maybe he recognized one of the fields, but then again it could’ve been anywhere.
He swallowed and his throat ran dry. He glanced at the blue machine and at the tubes and he breathed deep ’cause he had that feeling like he couldn’t take it no more.
He pushed back in his chair, closed his eyes and sat there for a long time, counting slow in his mind like his momma had once told him but finding nothing helped at all.
“So there’s this animal called a bearcat. And it smells like popcorn.”
Noah opened his eyes and he saw Raine sitting on the chair beside him.
“A bearcat?”
She nodded.
“And it smells like popcorn?”
She nodded.
She crossed her legs beneath herself, tucked her hair back, and stared at the television set. He watched her for a while like she weren’t real, and he thought maybe she looked a little different but he didn’t know why.
“Will you come with me somewhere after this?” she said.
“Anywhere,” he said.
*
It was a cold winter evening, though no one in Grace complained much about the weather no more. Though the sky was dark it was lit by the shine of a thousand stars.
Black walked up the winding pathway and into the cemetery behind St. Luke’s.
He kneeled and laid a small bouquet beneath the headstone. He did that often.
Though he was sad he managed a smile when he read the perfectly simple inscription written at the base of her headstone.
Summer, my sister.
“You all right, Black,” Purv said.
Black looked up, only just noticing he weren’t alone.
“Yeah,” he said, and then he stood. “You healing up okay?”
Purv shrugged. “Noah reckons I’m strong.”
“Noah reckons a lot of shit.”
Purv smiled. “I was just payin’ my respects. I ain’t sure why but I keep comin’ here.”
Black nodded.
“You look different, Black.”
“How’s that?”
“Maybe your eyes are clearer or somethin’.”
Black frowned at him. Truth was he’d been to Pinegrove a couple times. The road was long and he didn’t watch it close but maybe it weren’t as dark as it once was.
“How come you’re all gussied up?” Purv said.
“I ain’t.”
“And that cologne.”
“I got a date, not that it’s any of your business.”
“With that lady stayin’ at your place? Peach.”
Black sighed.
“Small town.”
“How’s your mother doin’?”
Purv shrugged.
“You hear Amber King had her baby?” Purv said.
Black nodded. “I also heard what she called him.”
“Noah ain’t stopped smilin’ about it.”
They turned and began to head back toward the square. Purv walked with a limp now and probably always would.
As Black glanced back at the church and at the clock tower a light snow began to drift and fall.
He didn’t notice the two figures that stood at the top, side by side, hand in hand.