Page 12 of One Impossible Moment
Nothing.
Just the backyard.The fence.The shed.The same world she'd been stuck in for the last six months.
She swallowed hard, blinking back tears.How would she find the road again?She no longer lived in the same town.She couldn't find her way back even if she tried.
But the longing to return stayed with her, growing into a steady ache.A whisper in her bones.A pull toward a place the world was trying to keep her from reaching.
Toward a man she could remember better than she could recall details about her mom.
And somewhere, deep in the part of her that still believed in impossible things, she wondered if he remembered her, too.
Chapter 6
Finn
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Finn waited until Wadeand Rex walked out of view before slipping around the side of the old feed store.The building leaned as if it were tired of standing, boards warped from years of sun and neglect.No animals lived here, so the feed had rotted away long ago, leaving only dust and the faint smell of mold.
He checked over his shoulder once more.
No one watched.The building was off the main road, on a short street lined with cherry trees that bloomed every so often but never grew cherries.There was also a bowling alley, no one ever used, one short walk away.
He ducked through the broken doorway and crossed the dim interior, boots crunching over old pellets and splintered wood.The loading dock sat at the back, half-collapsed, a stack of warped plywood nailed over the opening.
He crouched and pried at the one board he had loosened months ago.The piece of wood came free with a soft groan.On the underside were the marks he'd made.
Lines.Hundreds of them.Carved deep into the wood grain.
Finn pulled his knife from his pocket and added another.
The blade scraped, the sound sharp in the quiet.He stepped back and counted.He always counted because he forgot how many there were every day.
One thousand, nine hundred, and twenty-six days.
But that wasn't even all of them.He hadn't started marking the days right away.For a long time, he hadn't cared enough to track anything.Days blurred.Weeks vanished.Years merged.Time folded in on itself until it didn't mean anything.
