est had returned to

hat anything had shifted at all. The ruins sat quietly in my mind like a d

ention it

per with more force than necessary, muttering about men in Dublin who'd never set foot west of t

was meant to. Smi

ept circling back

sí

started looking for him. Or

aid nearby, their tone dismissive. Dirty work. Lonely work. But the men unloading beside him moved

hen he did, it was brief,

always did-from a distance tha

her," a woman murmured near me, as

t was the version smoothe

ory had sha

tioned nearby, uniforms and promises and the illusion of escape. She'd left i

her had

s almos

g asked and showed up early to Mass. After she left, something in him broke loose. Dri

been clever-too clever to waste himself the way he had. They said it with t

aw and cut, the tide dictating when you worked and when you starved. Solitary

it p

s feet before they wore through. Enough to make sure she stayed

d with her hair unbraided, laughing freely in a way Oisín never did. He w

amed of water clo

Suspended in a dark that

f it didn't quite belong to me. The sensation f

self it w

I found Oisín again without meaning to. He stood at the edge of the ro

ced me

Only surprise, and something like recogni

it," I said, before

eplied. "W

ded heavier tha

land waited.

I wondered who else had