t merciless t remains is memory to compensate. Our friends s t our poor minds could conjure to fill loves absence. I am ed to tbreaking for Speck, too. S about asks grim and determined, as if by staying busy soms at bay.

    After ter in t, and ted Smaolac time in years, bound to one small clearing in t by Cy. to go back e at us all. Five years  our camp, and  it migo return. t time anyone  surely ne as nature reclaims its ruins, too, en about t boy lost in t. t life to remain as t it had been.

    it safe to travel again, Luc out, leaving t our makes camp to c day, our spirits quickened at t of seeing our old s again. e raced like deer along trails, laugions as a promise of brigion.

    Climbing tern ridge, I ant laugy. to vieree limbs and branc road spot  trees. Branc trail, more streets and o to town.

    quot;Be it ever so ; Luchóg said.

    I looked far aling activity. From tation ied up ossed a football. A yello ttering curses as ring of ligo notice as day gave o nigs  on in the homes, as if on sudden signal.

    quot;S; Luchóg asked.

    e crept doo t. ty. t figures crossing beal tasks. Glancing in eacory unfolding. A cirred somet. Anoted a ared at minuscule figures playing games in a glo or anger. -door neig in an easy co the noise and flickering images.

    quot;; I whispered.

    Covered to oes in blue terryclot in a small cage in tractedly ly colored plastic toys. For a moment, I t t I could not understand o trailed beail. So a boartled and sligo be caug sely not my moted  sound before. tc before joining to t into t t I surely had seen him before.

    e circled back into ted until t sky and most of ts popped off goodnig.

    quot;I dont like t; I said, my breat light.

    quot;You ten ring,quot; Smaolach said.

    o t likely to encounter any  to  door. A neat roo tely tried on pairs until . tc of ts and vegetables, flour, salt, and sugar. Lucfuls of tea bags into rouser pockets and on t copped a package of cigarettes and a box of matc in minutes, disturbing no one.

    tubborn. All of tairs like room t sered a maze of plumbing. By folloually made our o terior of to make ourselves quieter, eps and sloo tche room smelled of remembered bread.

    ry, I tiptoed to locate t door and an easy exit. On tograpraits t read mainly as uninteresting s as I passed by one, illuminated by a  ced to o face tton. t stare directly into t cyle and cloted anoted o burst out laug tograpriggered a ruso my brain. Dizzy and disoriented, I kne could not place, togrape dress standing next to a s I kept coming back to t my fingers on traced tours of ted to remember. Foolis to turned on the lamp.

    Someone gasped in tc as tures on to clarity. t baby. But I could see clearly tograp ranced me, and beside it anoturbed me more. tation of somet  time ture aken, and  not been in black) and  and cap, eyes aing—ossed football, a V of geese,  a strange to o a little boy, to end up on ture offered no clues. It  bride.

    quot;Aniday, ; Luc;s.quot;

    A mattress creaked over out of bed. I snapped off ts and scrammed. ttered in a ient tone.

    quot;All rig; t;Ill go c I didnt ; airook teps sloried t of tc could not figure out the lock.

    quot;t budge,quot; Smaolach said.

    ttom landing, sc.  into ted seconds earlier. Lucating bar and unlocked t  click. e froze at the sound.

    quot;; t.

    quot;Fuck all,quot; said Smaolacurned t  by a small metal c;Lets go,quot; o squeeze ttering sugar and flour be of us, for t quot;; again, but y la popped on like a flas ion. From top of tc up in sequence, till terns. A dog began to yoook t as a sign to retreat , but, exed as imps, reasures, laugars.

    At top of topped to smoke one of tes, and I looked back one last time at to be. t ree, a stretcruck a deer, a clearing  space e anotence. to ed in t made one doubt ones oory.

    quot;t man back t; I said, quot;t;

    quot;to me,quot; Luc;Someone I kno;

    quot;Could it be your long-lost brot;

    quot;I  one.quot;

    quot;Pere a book you read in t;

    quot;I do not kno;

    quot;Pere t book you carry from place to place?quot;

    quot;No, not McInnes. I do not kno;

    quot;A man from a magazine? A pograp;

    quot;Someone I kne;

    quot;Could it be t t; te and bleeam engine.

    quot;I t it mig t cant be rig strange ;

    quot; year is it, little treasure?quot; Luchóg asked.

    It could ruth, I was no longer sure.

    quot;By no be a young man near ty years. And ure ;

    quot;Id guess about t;

    quot;And ;

    quot;t,quot; I said, and smiled like an idiot.

    quot;Your fat as old as I am.quot;

    I sat doime  seen my parents; tery.

    Luc do;After a paint you a picture of my dear yout real—just figures in a fairytale. My mammy could e and say, Sonny-boy, and I  kno knoy.quot;

    quot;But try ;

    quot;Mig all.quot;

    quot;And t;

    quot;to me. A boteet all time   talk, cant s bet is a baby—to learn—but ts moving backime. You so look after for a ;

    quot;I do not  to steal any c ;

    to make it ten blankets and a s from tion Army store, and e small meals, subsisting mainly on eas bre of January and February, en did not stir at all, but sat alone or in clumps of t or stone cold, ing for tion of our lives. Cronger by and by, and eps ance. Eaco move,  miserable dunge table er, a mile or so norts, t as secluded, it afforded us adequate protection. As  first day, restlessness s over me. Smaolac down beside me and draped an arm across my she sky.

    quot;Ní mar a síltear a bítear,quot; he said.

    quot;Smaolaco be a tand your old language. Speak Engliso me.quot;

    quot;Are you te and lamented? tter off ernal ing. Or is ttle treasure?quot;

    quot;;

    quot;Once and only once, t;

    quot;Luc;

    quot;I dont remember muc on ts not rig recall.quot;

    quot;Every place  of me disappears.quot;

    quot;Norapping felloac t o t. as a long time ago, and Im not really sure w was or w;

    te.

    quot;ts t and give o one anotisnt o be too attaco any s people.quot;

    Mystified by Smaolacottered off to my neurned over ts, and looked at ried to picture my mot recall to me as my name. tiful  just as muc merely read about in books, remains unknoo me. A moto a sleepy caire. A pair of lovers unbutton one anotumble into bed. Unreal as a dream.

    I did not confess to Smaolacation. Speck  abandoned our friendso some er ed o making our ne eaco o a deep sleep early eac. Sayed in  Marcracing out an intricate design on a rolled parc, and  and aloof. Early mornings, Id see  tern edge of camp, clad in  coat, sturdy s, pondering t time ever, s my toucurned to face me, srembled as if so cry.

    quot;s tter, Speck? Are you okay?quot;

    quot;Ive been oo  sno; Sook my ;ell steal off at t flurries.quot;

    er, I s. Se flakes gat;Its time,quot; sly as te susurrus trails, taking care to be ed at t nearest to arrive. t, and ts of tricked us into going too soon. e squeezed into our space only to fall overo close for t. to stay , ing  and respiration, and t from o sleep, too, and ogetc t to our books.

    Speck er evens. But I could not concentrate on ractions, and instead stared at o tell  te, incomplete, and per not friend in t a greater desire for more  rationalize or explain it a. Speck  Bear It A arm propped up he floor, her hair obscuring her face.

    quot;Speck, I o tell you.quot;

    quot;Just a moment. One more sentence.quot;

    quot;Speck, if you could put do book for a second.quot;

    quot;Almost t; Suck he novel.

    S me, and in one second my mood sion to fear. quot;I ime, Speck, about you. I  to tell you ;

    less gaze. quot;Aniday, quot; sed.

    quot;I o tell you ;

    quot;Dont.quot;

    quot;tell you, Speck, ;

    quot;Please, dont, ;

    I stopped, opened my mouto form topped again. quot; did you say?quot;

    quot;I dont kno I can  rig;

    quot; did you call me?quot;

    So recapture the escaped name.

    quot;You called me ; tory unraveled in an instant. quot;ts me, Im s  it?quot;

    quot;Im so sorry, Aniday.quot;

    quot; Aniday. ;

    quot; supposed to kno;

    t ell s and emotions competed in my mind. Images, solutions to assorted puzzles and riddles, and unansions. S doime, so me, rocking and sootion est touche chaos.

    And told me my story. tory told in told me ers filled in t. Sold me  all secret for so long.  is better not to kno t. Erase tient and il everyt could be ans unsatisfied. t, o darkness tion lasted, and t thing I remember is falling asleep in her arms.

    I   nigo groogeto be. In tips. A blackbird sang. But in t en a single o me, but by my side, ter is etc give it all a te, quot;Goodbye, ;

    It ime for o go. Speck is gone.