Dennis Lehane: Since We Fell

And what of Rachel herself? What was she, if not forever in transit? Forever en route. As adaptable as any of them to a journey, but never to an end.

She climbed the stairs. As she did, she could feel his passport tucked behind her own in the front pocket of her jeans. And she felt the dark deepen around her.

I don’t know how this ends, she told the dark. I don’t know my true place in it.

Yet the only response she got from the dark was a deepening of it as she climbed the stairs.

But there might be some light upstairs and there would certainly be light when she went back outside.

And if by some twist of fate there wasn’t, if all that remained of the world was night and no way to climb out of it?

Then she’d make a friend of the night.

Thanks to...

Dan Halpern and Zachary Wagman for the edits and the patience.

Ann Rittenberg and Amy Schiffman for the added guidance (and the patience).

My early readers — Alix Douglas, Michael Koryta, Angie Lehane, Gerry Lehane, and David Robichaud — who filled in all the blanks when it came to the broadcast news biz.

A special shout-out to Mackenzie Marotta for keeping the balls in the air and the trains running on time.