Emersyn looked around, as if making absolutely sure this guy was talking to her. Then she took a small step back and said, "Actually, I was just about to leave. I have a bunch of groceries sitting in the basket, and I should probably get home to put them away." This was all true, but also she just didn't feel comfortable helping some strange guy she didn't know read something in a graveyard. They were creepy enough without adding the stranger danger factor to the equation.

"Right," he said, letting his hand fall to his side and air blow out of his mouth. "I just... it will only take a second. Please, miss?" He had a slight southern drawl, and something about it, and the innocent look in his light blue eyes, made her think he could be safe.

She frowned and looked toward her bike. Then she gave a small sigh and said, "Okay. Yeah. Sure."

He smiled at her and stepped aside, gesturing to the headstone he was standing in front of. "I just can't read this name. Looks like the stone is old and dirty, and the name is... well, it's pretty unreadable." She stared at him, and then took a small step toward the headstone. "I've been trying to make out the name for a while, and—"

"I think it says Burk Matthews," she said, tilting her head to the side in the hopes that it would help her see the old weathered words easier. He mirrored her and squinted, trying to see what she saw. "Died on June 16, 1991 at the age of," she did some quick math in her head before saying, "43? Does that sound right to you?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. But I don't think this is the person I'm looking for. Thank you for your help though. Much appreciated." He gave her another smile and a nod of his head, and she grinned softly back at him.

She knew this was her chance to leave. To get her groceries back home and in the fridge. But now she was intrigued, and she thought maybe she could help him. "Who are you looking for?" she asked as he started to walk away.

He turned back toward her and said, with a sheepish grin, "You know something? I don't exactly know. Crazy, huh?" Yes, she wanted to say. It was crazy. Who came to a graveyard in a small town looking for someone they didn't know? She took another step back, now a little more apprehensive than she was before. He laughed. "I'm not crazy, I swear. I'm just looking for someone, but I don't know really anything about them. Just that it's a man. And he died in his late teens to early twenties."

She felt her heart stop. Her dad had been in his twenties when he'd died. "You don't have a name though?" she asked, and he shook his head. "Then it's probably not going to be very easy to find him."

"It's definitely not been easy so far," he replied. "Especially since most of the graves are so dirty and weathered that they're hard to make out what they say." He sighed heavily, then took a step toward her and held out his hand. "Sorry, don't mean to be rude. I'm Zeke."

She closed the distance between them and shook his hand. "Hello," she said, still a little anxious. "I'm Emersyn. You new to the area, Zeke?"

This was a dumb question, because obviously he was new to town. She knew practically everyone, and she'd never seen this guy before. But even still, now that she was seeing him from a little closer, she thought there was something a little familiar about him. Maybe it was in the light shade of his blue eyes, or the messy curls of blonde hair sitting atop his head, or the warm pink lips that curved up into a tiny smile, but she had a feeling she'd seen him before. Once. A long time ago.

"Guilty," he said, looking a bit sheepish again. "What about you, Emersyn? You new here as well?"

She grinned at him. "Yes and no. I grew up here. But this is my first time back in a few years. So I'm a returnee, not a newbie."

"Oh," he said. "Well, welcome back, I guess."

She smiled. "Thank you. And I guess for you... just welcome." He stared at her for a few seconds, and she felt the heat rise in her face as the awkwardness began to build. "Well, I really should be going. Groceries."

"Right!" he said, standing up straight and rubbing his hands softly against his tan colored khaki shorts. Everything about this guy, from his shorts to his gray buttoned up t-shirt and all the way down to his sandals, screamed tourist. But if he was a tourist, then what the heck was he doing in a graveyard? And outside of tourist season? "Of course. Thank you for stopping to help me. Maybe I'll see you around town sometime, yeah?"

She nodded her head. "Sure. I mean... yeah. Nice to meet you, Zeke."

"Same to you, Emersyn."

She turned and quickly made her way back to her bike. As she hopped back on, she saw that he now had a piece of paper in his hand and was making his way to the next headstone. Funny, she knew almost everyone's story in this town. It was so small, and with her grandpa being the church pastor, she'd found that everyone in the town had been kind of part of her extended family. But it was interesting, meeting someone new to the area. And she wondered, as she began pedaling back to the house, groceries weighing her down in the back, just what his story was.

***

Emersyn spent the rest of the day cleaning up the old house and unpacking everything she'd brought with her. She dragged the suitcase with her art supplies to the shed in the backyard that had been her grandma's art studio, and as soon as she opened the door, she was transported back to the past. To a time when her grandma would sit on the floor, a paintbrush in her hand, and paint the most beautiful images Emersyn had ever seen. There were a few unfinished pieces lying around from before her grandma got sick, and she ran her fingers along the dried paint, hoping she could feel her grandma through the vibrant colors.

She didn't expect to feel so much emotion being back in the old studio. But the truth was, she'd been feeling so much since she'd stepped onto the ferry the day before that she was beginning to feel overwhelmed with all the emotions coming out of her. There was joy mixed with sadness, and a tiny bit of anger sprinkled in for good measure. It was like she was a pot of feelings that was getting ready to boil over any minute. Being in the studio was proving to be too much for one day, and after quickly unpacking all her supplies, she left the room to its ghosts. In time she'd come back. When the time was right.

Cleaning out her old room and dusting everything didn't take too long. There were some old clothes she'd left behind when she was a young teenager, and she vowed to go through them so she could make a church donation in the next couple of days. She'd outgrown all of those clothes, both physically and mentally. It was time to gift them to someone new. Donation, as her grandpa had told her, just meant giving something a second chance at life. And that's exactly what Emersyn wanted. A second chance to find herself.

The sky outside was beginning to darken, and Emersyn was just about to start cooking dinner (baked mac and cheese with chicken and artichoke hearts) when she heard a knock at the door. After turning the stove on quickly, she rushed over to get the door. Standing just outside were two people about her age. Avery and Axel, two siblings who had been her best friends growing up. Avery had a pixie cut that looked freshly dyed black, a nose ring, and a long sleeve tattoo featuring Noah's Arc with all the animals, her favorite biblical story. Axel, her older brother, was standing next to her and had long sandy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, a guitar strapped to his back.

"Hey there, stranger," Avery said, and Emersyn screamed at the sight of them. She threw her arms around both of them at once, holding them so tight they started gasping for breath after just a few moments. When she finally let go, Avery laughed and said, "So what the hell? You come back, after all this time, and don't even bother letting your best friends know? Who picked you up from the ferry?"

She stepped aside so they could come in. "Kiel. It was sort of a last-minute deal. I was just getting settled in. Spent the day cleaning up and unpacking."

Axel grinned and looked behind her into the kitchen. "You cooking something?" he asked, his eyes lighting up. Axel always had a gift for showing up right as dinner was getting started. Her grandma used to say everyone had a sixth sense, and that was his.

She laughed. "I was about to start cooking up some mac and cheese. Trying my grandma's old recipe."

"With the chicken and artichoke hearts?" he asked, and she nodded her head in amusement. He licked his lips. "Hope you have enough," he said in his deep voice, and she giggled. "I got beer in the car we can bring in."

Avery made a face. "God damnit. I can't drink tonight. I have class in the morning."

Axel rolled his eyes. "You can drink, dumbass. Just don't get drunk."

"You know she can't stop herself once she's started," Emersyn said, laughing. Avery flipped her off. "And yeah, I have enough. As long as you bring in the beer."

"Done," Axel said, and he ran out of the house, leaving the girls in giggles behind. He returned a few moments later with a 24-pack of apple cider ale. Her favorite kind, which made her think he'd picked it up just before he came over. "So, he said, hopping up on her kitchen counter as she threw the macaroni noodles in the now boiling water. "What made you come back?"

She frowned, not really wanting to get into it. Since she'd come back from the store, her mom had called her four more times and left two more voicemails she hadn't listened to. "Just was missing home, I guess," she said, which wasn't a lie. She really had missed it. "So I just thought I'd come back for a while."

Axel wrinkled his nose. "You escaped this place. Why the fuck would you want to come back?"

Emersyn shook her head, thinking about all the times the three of them had dreamed of leaving the island and moving to the big city together when they were kids. How many times she'd dreamed of being with her mom. "I finally got to a big city and hated it. Decided it wasn't really for me. Missed the island, so I came back. And besides, someone had to move back to the old Collins house." She gestured at the walls around her. The walls that had been in her family for over fifty years. "My grandma left me the place in her will. Thought it would be nice to come back."

He groaned, but Avery gave him a playful shove and said, "Oh shut up. If you hate it here so much, then why do you always come back during break?"

"Break?" Emersyn asked. "Wait, don't tell me... you're going to college?" This shocked her, because Axel had always been dead set against college. As soon as he turned 18, he wanted to leave the island and travel the country, just him and his guitar. He thought for sure he would get noticed on a city subway somewhere and get famous overnight.

He sighed and nodded his head. "Yeah. Just the community college. Taking some music classes. Still want to travel and do all that shit. But might not hurt to have a degree or something to back me up. Better than what Avery's doing anyway."

"Oh my goodness," Emersyn said, stirring the macaroni noodles. "What are you doing, Avery. Please don't tell me you're working on a fishing boat."

She scoffed. "Fuck no. I'm actually going to school in the city. Want to do something meaningful with my life. Getting my education degree."

Axel laughed. "She's going to take summer classes so she can get it done quicker. She wants to be a high school English teacher. Can you imagine? Avery standing in front of a classroom full of adolescent assholes and teaching them about Shakespeare?"

"Holy smokes," Emersyn said as her eyes widened in surprise. "An English teacher? You? No way. I don't believe it."

Avery rolled her eyes. "I know. Who'd have thought it, huh? But I don't want to be a middle school teacher. I don't want to teach nouns and verbs and that shit. I want to teach about critical thinking and literature. Have class discussions. You know I was always good at that. And I love to read."

This was all true. But still, all their lives, Avery had talked about being a fashion designer and showing off her designs during New York Fashion Week. She just couldn't picture the girl she knew, with her tattoos, piercings, and black as the night hair, standing in front of a class full of hormonal adolescents and teaching about literature. It felt like everyone was giving up on their dreams except her. But she didn't say this. She just kept stirring the macaroni and listening to them talk about their lives. Her phone buzzed on the counter, and she looked down and saw her mom's face pop up on the screen.

"Who is that?" Axel asked as she silenced her phone and put it face down on the granite counter. "Some hot boyfriend in the city?"

She snorted as she lifted the pot of noodles up off the stove and poured them over the strainer. "I wish. No, it's just my mom. She's been calling me ever since I got back to the island."

"And you aren't answering," Avery said. Not a question, but Emersyn still shook her head. Her two friends locked eyes for a moment, and then Avery asked, "What happened, Em?"

She sighed and shook her head. "Nothing. It's... it's nothing. We just had a falling out. And I don't want to talk to her right now. But she's not getting the hint." The phone vibrated again, and Emersyn picked it up and held the power button down until it turned off.

Axel's brow furrowed, and she could tell her friends were worried about her, which was not what she wanted at all. "You doing okay, Em?"

She nodded her head, but in truth, she wasn't sure if she was okay. Things had been said, and they couldn't be unsaid now that they were out there. And she wanted to forget about it. She really did. But she just kept remembering that night, and the words that had escaped both of their mouths like prisoners breaking free after years of being locked up behind steel bars. And every time she thought about her mother, she felt nothing but hurt and rage and hate.

She knew Avery didn't believe her, and she also knew they would ask more questions later. But they weren't there to pry. They were there to celebrate her less-than-triumphant return. Eventually she would tell them she had dropped out of college. That she had realized it wasn't for her. And that she felt so lost and confused on where to go and what to do with her life. Even though she'd told Kiel something totally different during breakfast. Even though she acted like she had it all together. Had a plan of action.

But the truth was she didn't. She was totally winging it. And she had no idea what the next chapter of her life would be about.

Chapter Four

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