Jamie’s locket. I never thought I’d see it again. I thought it was gone forever. I gape at it. Then at Roy. “How did…”

“Keep something from each accident I clean. Something small.”

I breathe in sharply. “Isn’t that illegal? To keep things?”

“I’m there after the police. After the families. Anything that’s important, they take it away long before I get there.”

“But…why?”

Roy looks from me to Emmett to the peg-board. “It’s a tough job. Keeping something makes it more human. I tie the things together to remind me it’s all connected. Somehow. We’re all connected.”

We’re all connected.

I look down at the locket in my hand.

Roy says, “Noticed your gold necklace on occasion, Sarah. The chains are the same.”

“Yeah,” I manage to say before I start crying. “We each wear half. We each wore half.”

Emmett holds his hand out, like asking if he can see it. I don’t want to hand it over; I want to hold it forever. But he needs it as much as I do. I give it to him.

Emmett studies it. “It looks busted.”

Through my tears I laugh.

Emmett gives the necklace back, spooling it into my palm. Roy returns to his bucket chair. We sit, the three of us—Roy looking at the garage floor; me staring at Jamie’s locket; Emmett holding the antlers—and we let our tears go. Not all of our tears. But a lot. We cry until our sleeves are full of snot and tears. The three of us are beyond embarrassment; it’s like we’ve created a place where we can let each other just…be.

Finally, Roy stands. He rubs his hands over his face, reaches down to pat Ruby, who thumps her tail for him. “Might could do with some coffee.”

“Want me to make it?” I ask.

He smiles. “Goodness no.”

“When do you have to leave for Mr. Big’s?” I ask.

“It can wait a few more minutes.”

I nod. “I brought hot cocoa for me and Emmett.”

“I’ll get the water started,” Roy says. “You two come on in when you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” Emmett says from under his hood.

“Welcome.”

Emmett and I snuffle our noses and swipe at our tears. Emmett looks at me with red eyes and ruddy cheeks. “Do you think Roy would drive us to the cemetery?”

I nod. “We need to go there?”

“I don’t know why, I feel like these belong on her grave.”

“I read about some people who lived way back, before the Roman Empire, I think. Deer were symbolic to them. They thought deer helped send the spirits of the dead on their way.”

“Really?”

“I feel it, too. Like maybe the antlers can help guard her spirit. Let it be free.”

He looks at me, surprised. “Yeah. Exactly.”

We sit quietly a while longer. Then I ask, “Want to go inside?”

“Sure. But I can’t drink the cocoa.”

“I brought the sugar-free kind.”

“You think of everything, don’t you?”

“Oh sure. I think of everything.” I grab my bag.

Emmett helps me find some rope so we can tie Ruby to Roy’s front steps. She looks pathetic, gives me big sad mournful eyes, but it’s the safest thing. She’s caused enough trouble here. But also—thanks, Rubes. For setting good things in motion that night.

Still, we don’t need her sinking her teeth into Buddy. Wouldn’t that be perfect?

In Roy’s kitchen, the fluorescent lights jar my watery eyes. The coffeemaker is burbling on the table, spitting brown liquid. Roy’s got a big, dented pot of water heating on the stove. There are three mugs and a couple of spoons on the table.

I sit on the stepladder that’s been enlisted as a third seat. Emmett sits on the plastic chair. I pull the sugar-free cocoa mix and snacks out of my backpack.

Roy pours hot water into our mugs, returns the pot to the stove. Emmett and I tear open our packets and put in our cocoa, stirring, watching the brown powder darken, sink, dissolve. Roy sits and I fill his mug with coffee. We all look wrecked. But also relieved.

There’s no talking. There’s no need.

Emmett’s spoon clinks against his mug. Roy takes a slurp of coffee.

I breathe. I feel the kaleidoscope shift.

It’s a big one, this swerve my life took.

And I might catch hell from my parents when I get home, I might never patch things up with Stenn. I’ll never have Jamie back. But for this moment at least, I’m okay.

I’ve got these friends, see. Who need me as much as I need them.

Go, Jamie. Let your spirit speed on its way.

We’re good here.