Page 103 of I Came Back for You
“No big revelations, but it’s nice to have, isn’t it?”
“For sure. And didn’t you feel better when you saw the haiku about you?”
“What?”
“The one about the pine trees. It’s about you.”
“But what makes you say that?”
“I remember Mel showing it to me. Well, notshowingme. She wouldn’t go that far. But I found it on the kitchen counter when she was home the summer before she died—and when I asked, she said it was about the two of you at the first house we had on the Cape.”
“I had no idea.”
“Yeah, read it again.”
We wish each other goodbye, and as soon as I’ve disconnected, I return to my laptop and scroll to the poem, knowing exactly which one he’s referring to—which I’d assumed was yet another nature haiku.
Mel was eight and nine when we had the Cape Cod house he mentioned, and those summers were magical for me. After coming back from the beach each day, she and I would read in a hammock surrounded by pine trees. And I sometimes sang her a Scottish ballad my mother had taught me.
I read the poem once more, with Logan’s revelation in mind.
The song in the pines
Stays with me always, always,
Without you knowing.
Oh, Mel,I think.It’s stayed with me always, too.
