Epilogue
The headlines accumulate along with the years.
MARINESELECT ILLEGAL DUMPING EXPOSED
By Jackson James | Silver Shoals Gazette
The response is immediate. Coastal newspapers pick it up. Then state outlets. Then national. Cited on podcasts, in policy briefings, on late-night monologues.
Jackson finds out he’s been selected as the recipient of the George Polk Award for Environmental Reporting in the Klaussen’s deli line, grabbing a sandwich for Ben, standing between the smoked turkey and pickles.
At the ceremony luncheon, Ben wears a new suit that Jackson helped him pick out.
He claps so hard he nearly reinjures himself.
WHITAKER SEAFOOD LAUNCHES COASTAL CLEANUP INITIATIVE
Scrimshaw Cove to become pilot site for new restoration efforts
No mention of the scandal, the fallout, the boardroom panic. Just a photo of Ben with his sleeves rolled up and boots in the sand, windswept and painfully earnest, standing beside a cluster of volunteers and a smiling city councillor.
Jackson clips the article and magnets it to the fridge. Ben sees it, shakes his head. “Feels a little revisionist.”
Jackson smiles. “I think it’s the story that needs to be told today. Feel free to sue if you don’t like it.”
BENJAMIN WHITAKER III NAMED NEW CEO
Change of leadership marks new era for seafood empire
Ben stands tall behind the podium. Speaks for five minutes, a speech he wrote himself, no stammer.
Ends with, “Let’s do this right.” The crowd applauds, the board politely, and the gathered employees enthusiastically.
Jackson, in the back, mouths, ‘killed it.’ Ben’s face shines with the peace of a man who’s learned to put down his burdens.
INNOVATIVE USE OF FISH BYPRODUCTS SLASHES WASTE AT WHITAKER SEAFOOD
Company earns sustainability praise
At the breakfast table, Jackson scrolls the Gazette’s front page while Ben’s still half-asleep over toast.
“Look at that,” Jackson says. “You’re the seafood sector’s sweetheart now.”
Ben mumbles into his coffee. “Mort’s going to ban you from writing about me.”
Jackson grins. “Let him try.”
NEW EDITOR NAMED AT GAZETTE
Paper passes torch to longtime reporter
The first issue with the new masthead drops on a Thursday, and along with it, the new last name on his byline. Editor-in-Chief: Jackson Whitaker.
No announcement for that. That’s something just for them, out of the public eye. Just a name change in twelve-point font and a lot of smirking from Mort, who scrawls a note in red pen on his way out and tapes it to Jackson’s new office door:
-Welcome to the hot seat.
LOCAL COUPLE LAUNCHES LGBTQIA+ YOUTH NONPROFIT
Silver Shoals welcomes Harbor House at Former Hildebrandt Hall Site
The ribbon cutting is small. A few donors, staff, some volunteers, and a handful of kids who already call it their place.
The Gazette photo from the afternoon ends up in the foyer: Jackson with one arm tossed around Ben’s shoulder, both of them squinting into the winter light.
Behind them, the porch is wrapped in string lights.
The pride flag is fluttering by the door.
The windows are framed by signs they painted themselves, in colors chosen together.
You Belong Here.
Welcome Home.
By the time the speeches are done and the guests drift home, the two of them have taken refuge outside.
Ben nudges Jackson’s shoulder. “You think they could tell we’d been crying?”
Jackson scoffs. “We’re the queer husbands who built a youth center. We’re supposed to cry.”
Ben laughs, pulls him close.
The porch lights blink on, golden and forgiving. Inside, it’s all texture: fresh paint, new coats on hooks, someone’s playlist bleeding into kitchen chatter, the chaos of found family reverberating off the walls.
They sit side by side on the edge of it all, hands linked.
“We did good,” Ben says, simply.
“Yeah,” Jackson agrees softly. “We really did.”
Not just one story, but a whole archive. Filled right to the margins with love.