Chapter 18: Bloody Lip
For the next hour Gillian and Brett play their game of badminton in the yard and Saul and Tom are on the lake in their canoe. Sometimes I can see the canoe between the blowing leaves on the trees, a narrow stream of yellow against the blue-green backdrop of the lake’s water and foliage. Other times the boat is nowhere to be seen, hidden in a shallow cove next to the lake, out of sight.
Bernie is at my side, fully clothed again. We pound a few Rolling Rocks together, discuss his writing career and my sabbatical from the college where I teach. He asks me if I miss Thad, and I tell him, “Sometimes. It all depends on what kind of mood I’m in.”
“Is it true that you haven’t been on the island since he died of his heart attack here?”
I nod. “It is true. I couldn’t make
