| OCR Text |
Show Fair Forever . 172 Mom helped me walk upstairs, and while I got dressed, I heard Mom sneak to Amanda's room. I couldn 't hear what they said so I waited on the catwalk. A flock of white pelicans flew down the channel and landed in the bay. One lifted up and perched on the top of Beacon 9. A few minutes later, I heard Amanda in the bathroom. She was packing, straightening up. She went back to her room and I waited. The pelicans rose from the sea like white papers in a wind, circling Beacon 9 and aiming for the lighthouse, growing smaller and smaller until they faded away. Just like Amanda in Fair Forever. After a long wait, Amanda came to the catwalk where she sat, like nothing had changed. She had a bruise on her arm from the I V. She held up both hands. They were wrapped in white gauze with only the ends of her fingers sticking out from the white. She reached over and took my hand in the tips of her fingers. I didn't want her to speak. I didn't want to hear. 'I have to leave,' she said, whispering, her voice sounding dry and far away.. I tried to protest, but my throat swelled into a thick knot. Amanda squeezed my hand. She said, 'Thank you, Bradley. Thank you for teaching me to row. Thank you for being so good, so patient. For believing in Cornelius.' She lifted her feet and rested them on the railing like she was going to settle in and stay-like she had nothing else to do and no place else to be-like sitting on my catwalk was the one place in the whole world where she could escape and measure the world with her eyes. I looked away. My eyes stung. |
