Bernie Kosar still lies waiting at the foot of the bed. He wags his tail when I carefully take him into my arms and carry him outside to the truck. Six starts the truck and lets it idle. I turn and look up at the hotel and am saddened that it’s not the house, and that I know I’ll never see it again. Its peeling wooden clapboards, broken windows, black shingles warped from excessive sun exposure and rain. It looks like Paradise, I once told Henri. But that will no longer hold true. Paradise lost.
I turn and nod to Six. She climbs into the truck, closes the door, and waits.
Sam and Mark shake hands but I don’t hear what they say to each other. Sam climbs into the truck and waits with Six. I shake Mark’s hand.
“I owe you more than I’ll ever be able to repay,” I say to Mark.
“You don’t owe me a thing,” Mark says.
“Not true,” I say. “Someday.”
I look away. I can feel myself wanting to collapse under the sadness of leaving. My resolve is being held by a tattered string ready to snap.
I nod. “I’ll see you again someday.”
“Be safe out there.”
I take Sarah into my arms and squeeze her tightly, never wanting to let go.
“I’ll come back to you,” I say. “I promise you, if it’s the last thing I do I’ll come back to you.”
Her face is buried in my neck. She nods.
“I’ll count the minutes until you do,” she says.
One last kiss. I set her on the ground and I open the door to the truck. My eyes never leave hers. She covers her mouth and her nose with her hands pressed together, neither one of us able to look away. I close the door. Six puts the truck in reverse and pulls out of the parking lot, comes to a stop, puts it in gear. Mark and Sarah walk to the end of the lot to watch us on our way, tears streaming down both sides of Sarah’s face. I turn in my seat and watch from the rear window. I lift my hand to wave and Mark waves back but Sarah just watches. I watch her for as long as I can, growing smaller, one indistinct blur fading in the distance. The truck slows and turns and both of them vanish from sight. I turn back around and I watch the fields pass and I close my eyes and I picture Sarah’s face and I smile. We’ll be together yet, I tell her. And until that day you’ll be in my heart and my every thought.
Bernie Kosar lifts his head and rests it in my lap and I place my hand upon his back. The truck bounces down the road, driving south. The four of us, together, heading for the next town. Wherever that might be.
