Epilogue
Kat wasn’t sure why she had accepted Callie’s invitation to the Memorial Day barbecue and bonfire. She hadn’t realized it would be a neighborhood event, filled with people she had never met who shared a history that she would never know. But Callie had caught her indulging in a moment of weakness yesterday as the crowd at Lucy’s dispersed. She didn’t want to spend another holiday alone.
The barbecue was, apparently, the big kick-off to summer at the lake, and the event was full of quirky traditions dating back a century or more, or so Dora had told her. That woman could talk. Kat had chatted with her for half an hour and probably spoken no more than two sentences. Now Kat stood off to one side, enjoying the sunset and observing the chaos as the children played some kind of screaming and chasing game, the adults caught up with old friends, and the teenagers huddled in a pack under the big tree at the center of the commons. She might not be a part of the group, but at least she wasn’t home alone.
She wondered briefly what it would have been like to grow up here, with only a handful of neighbors in the winter and then an influx of friends in the summer. Maybe things would have been better. Maybe her mother would have been stronger. And maybe she should stop dwelling on the past and worry more about the present.
“Make a wish?” asked Mel, appearing beside Kat and holding out a flat package wrapped in plastic.
Startled, Kat accepted the package before she even knew what it was.
“The directions are inside,” added Mel, “and here’s a pencil so you can write a wish on the side before you put it together.”
“But…” Kat left the question hanging in the air because Mel was already gone.
Curious, Kat opened the package and pulled out the instruction sheet. It was a sky lantern. She had seen them on TV, but never in person. She glanced around at the crowd of people, many of whom now held packages of their own and were, like her, trying to figure out what to do with them.
She shrugged. Might as well give it a try. Even the best-laid plans could use a lucky break from time to time. She knew exactly what she would wish for.
Callie had been watching Mel make the rounds, wondering what in the world she was handing out. When Callie finally got hers, she opened it and an instruction sheet fluttered to the ground. She bent to pick it up, then her eyes flew to meet Mel’s.
“Seriously?” she asked. “Where did you find them?”
“Ever heard of the internet? It’s just not that hard.”
Callie threw her arms around her sister.
“You are the best,” she said. “This is the perfect way to end the weekend. How did you know? ”
“It’s the triplet thing,” said Mel airily. “Some things I just know.”
Callie snorted in disbelief. “So what are you wishing for?” she asked.
Mel’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you trying to jinx me?”
Callie laughed. “Of course not. I’m just curious, but if you’re superstitious, I won’t ask again.”
“Don’t,” said Mel. Then she cocked her head to one side. “What are you wishing for?”
“Oh, so now you’re trying to jinx me back?”
Mel shrugged. “I figure if you asked, then you might be willing to answer.
“To be honest, I don’t know,” answered Callie. “But while I’m thinking about it, I’m going to help Danny with his lantern.”
“And I’m going to give Officer Jack a hard time. He has an unacceptable air of authority for a guy who used to wear Superman underpants.”
Callie laughed as Mel headed over toward Jack, and then she began hunting for Adam and Danny. She found them down by the beach. They quickly shuffled their lanterns so she couldn’t see what they had written on the side.
“Do we have a problem here, gentlemen?” she asked.
They looked up at her, wearing matching expressions of innocence.
“No, ma’am,” said Adam. “No problem here.”
“We’re good,” said Danny.
“Did you think of good wishes?” she asked.
The two looked at each other, then back up at Callie.
“Actually, it took us a while to think of a good wish,” said Adam.
“We couldn’t think of any,” explained Danny. “All the old ones came true, and we didn’t have any new ones yet.”
Callie grinned at the pair of them, then sat down cross-legged beside them .
“I had exactly the same problem,” she said.
“But then we thought of one,” said Danny. “A good one.”
“Really?” she asked, intrigued. She shot a glance at Adam, but he didn’t offer any further details.
At that moment, Mel clanked a grill fork against a beer bottle to get everyone’s attention.
“It’s time, people. Let’s launch these wishes.”
Mel had armed several of the adults with grill lighters, and one by one they helped light all the lanterns. Then she gave the countdown to launch. As the lanterns began to float up into the sky, the kids were the first to react, their voices hushed, furiously whispering back and forth about their wishes and which ones were definitely going to come true.
Callie waited until both Mel and Tessa had released theirs before she let go of her own. She wanted to give her sisters’ wishes a head start. It was their turn to find a happy ending.
The sight of all those lanterns floating up into the night sky left Callie breathless. This time around there was no full moon, but there were also no mishaps. All the lanterns floated up, up, and away, down the length of the lake, higher and higher, until they disappeared among the stars.
Everyone had fallen silent as they watched the lanterns fly, and they stayed quiet as they wandered back toward the bonfire. Callie fell in step with her sisters.
“That was beautiful,” she said. “Nobody went down in flames.”
“Hmmmm,” said Tessa, retreating into therapist mode.
“Does that mean, ‘I think my wish will work this time,’ or ‘I didn’t actually write anything on my lantern’?” asked Mel.
Tessa laughed. “Oh, I wrote on it,” she said.
“And?” asked Callie.
“I’m almost afraid to see what happens,” answered Tessa.
Danny caught up with Callie and grabbed her hand. They walked together for the last few yards. Then Danny pulled her aside.
“Want to know what I wished for?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I wished for us to have a happy ending,” he said.
She squeezed him in a giant hug.
“Me too,” she whispered back.
When she released him, Danny ran to get a stick and a marshmallow and joined the other kids around the fire. She turned to find Adam standing beside her. He put an arm around her shoulder and together they watched Danny as he jostled for position. He didn’t say much, but at least he was talking now, and the other kids accepted him without question.
Adam pulled her outside the circle of the firelight and wrapped both arms around her.
“So what did you wish for?” he murmured in her ear.
She laughed softly.
“You first,” she said.
“Danny and I wished for the same thing,” he said. “We wished for our happy ending.”
“You’ve already got that,” she said, and kissed him.
“What about your wish?”
She kissed him again.
“As someone very wise once told me, a happy ending is more of a journey than a destination,” Callie said. “I wished for help along the way.”
Thank you so much for reading Love Song (Instrumental) !