The Brandywine Prophet

13.1 Coda

CODA

“...and grace my fears relieved.”

March: seven months after the National Championship

The morning was abnormally blue for a Michigan spring. Janie Carmel held herself in the arms of her fleece jacket and pressed her shoulders against her ears. Frozen blades of grass crunched beneath her steps as she climbed the hill behind her old house.

It was unfounded sentiment that brought her back to her father’s theater; some prerequisite to “moving on” as Chase tried to explain. She approached the curvature where the hill began to level, and the bandshell would soon be peering over the skewed horizon.

The edge of something orange grabbed Janie’s attention through the tinted grass. She knelt down, removed her glove, and worked her fingers into the cold dirt around the plastic curio.

It was an Easter egg, still intact after three years in the mud. She tugged off her other glove and held them both between her knees. She twisted open the neon vestige and discovered two pieces of chocolate (seeped from their foil and molded to the shell’s curve) and a single quarter.

Engines revved and the ground trembled. It was almost time.

Janie didn’t move. She recalled the words that her father spoke the night before. She remembered how the heat from his claw drew a vapored outline on the wall between them.

“Sometimes I can still feel them...” he said. “...my other fingers. Sometimes they tickle and I try to flex them. Sometimes it’s excruciating... like I’m being poked with a dozen needles. Our Theater’s no different, Janie. Even when it’s gone, it’ll never be really gone.”

The mechanical drone doubled in strength as the men in charge barked orders.

Janie examined the egg and its trinkets, then slipped the quarter in the pocket of her fleece and tossed the chocolate and shell to the ground. She wiggled her fingers back in her gloves. She looked to the crest of the hill... then turned around and walked away.

The quarter would be sentiment enough.

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This is a dense book. If you got this far and enjoyed the ride, you're not the typical Wattpad reader : )

If you are having any immediate reactions... I would LOVE to hear them. Please, if you're a silent reader, take a minute to send me a quick message to let me know what you think. I have a feeling this is going to be a very polarizing ending...

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Again, thank you for your dedication to this story! The paperback and ebook will be out in September : )

I love you all (seriously, I do),

Jake