Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day(38)

“Took you long enough.”

I lift my head to look at her. The alley is gone. Sophie is gone. I’m a little sorry about that. I’d been meaning to say goodbye.

“Have you been waiting all this time?”

Patty shrugs, like it makes no difference to her; like forty years was the blink of an eye. “Not all this time. I had to show Ma and Pa where to go. Now I get to walk with you. All the way home.”

“You won’t leave me again, will you?”

“Never.” Patty’s hand slips into mine and holds me, holds me fast, the two Pace girls against the weight and width of the world. When she turns, I turn with her, and we walk, side by side, into the silvery light of something more than a mirror, something less than a moon. I don’t know where we’re going, but I know this:

It’s been a lot of years and a lot of miles, but I’m finally going home. And I am not afraid.