…on the day that would have been your twentieth birthday.

Returning; past the empty school bus stop, down the sloping highway and into the hamlet of Lund. Push through the doors of Nancy’s bakery for a blackberry cinnamon bun. Good friends are there to share a breakfast with. Cross up to the General Store. Venture to the back and into the cooler for a Jones Soda. Is it a coincidence that Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ plays over the store speakers? Shuffle to that familiar rack where the Hawkins Cheezies are on offer. Outside again, past the bulletin board with the tear off ads for firewood, past the office where Ruth the Postmistress is working, past the arbutus tree teaming with ‘X’wup-X’wup’ hummingbirds engaged in playful games of tag. Down the ramp to the dock into a cold grey day that’s sprinkling with rain. Pippa and Mama and I tear open the cheezies, crack the soda, and spend some more time with you…”