Nell put a hand on his arm. “You didn’t open it yet,” she said gently.
His smile was sad. “I thought we’d do it together.”
They both looked back to the letter. Slowly, Nell worked the flap free.
Swann,
I’m going to say something very uncharacteristic, so save this letter, because it’ll be the only time: I’m sorry.
I’m sorry for being such a boorish bastard, for antagonizing our researchers over every project and article, for always voting so obstinately on every department motion. But most of all, I’m sorry for hurting you and Nell. But I promise you, everything I’ve done—every single thing—was to protect her.
She is the most important thing to me in the world.
I’m going to call her tonight. I’m going to tell her everything.
But if something happens to me first, I’ll need your help. I need you to destroy the map from the Junk Box Incident. I know, I know. But I don’t have time to explain. You know where it is, that old spot. Take it and tear it to shreds as quickly as you can. It’s the only way to keep Nell safe.
And give this to her. I know it isn’t much, but it’s the only picture of her mother I kept.
Tell her I love her, Swann. That I always have.
Thank you, old friend, and I love you, too.
Daniel
Nell didn’t realize she’d been crying until a tear landed on her knuckle, dangerously close to the letter. She glanced up quickly, at the dimly glowing chandelier in the ceiling of their imaginary, not-imaginary room, until it was no longer blurry. She knew she probably looked silly, but she didn’t care. They were her father’s last words to Swann, and to her, in a way. She was terrified of getting the page wet and making the ink run.
“I’m sorry, my dear,” Swann said, equally teary. “I don’t know why he wrote to me instead of you.”
“You know me, and so did he,” Nell said. “If this letter had shown up on my doorstep with no explanation right before he died, I would have thrown it away out of spite.”
Swann wiped his eyes, chuckling. “He could be wise, at times. But if only I’d found it sooner. I could have spared you all this danger.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” she said. She would have been safer without the Agloe map, but she also never would have had the chance to finally understand what this had all been about—and to maybe forgive her father.
Swann smiled again and scooted closer to her. At last, Nell pulled out the photograph.
“That’s the road to Agloe,” Ramona said, surprised. “The first day that Tam and Wally brought all of us there.”
Nell glanced at the back, where someone had long ago written Tam, Daniel, Nell, Francis, Romi, Eve, Bear and then turned it over again to study the picture. Everyone was posed in a row in the caption’s order, in the middle of a dirt road, some smiling, some still looking dazed. Wally, she assumed, was the invisible one behind the camera. Off to the side, two cars, both with their doors flung wide open, were parked crookedly. And just behind them, Nell could barely make out the unfocused shape of buildings on the horizon—a town.
She gasped as her eyes reached the seventh, last face in line.
“That’s Bear,” Eve confirmed, pointing.
Nell stared. She could not believe it.
“We have to go,” she said, struggling to sit up. “You can tell me what happened next on the way, Francis.”
“What? Why?” Swann asked. “The police are very likely still looking for you! And who knows where Wally is!”
“All the more reason not to wait!”