EPILOGUE. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

EPILOGUE

NOT A RIPPLE stirred the surface of Cauldron Lake, no fish leapt from its depths, no dragonflies bobbed above its shallows. Even the solitary red-tailed hawk floating high overhead kept its distance. It was a lake of black glass, cold and perfect and dead.

Ever vigilant, the hawk dipped slightly, curious now at the bubbles rising from one spot in the lake. It moved lower as the bubbles grew larger, the lake boiling.

“It’s not a lake… it’s an ocean, ” he said, so clearly it was as if he were right beside her.

Alice burst up from the darkness of the lake, burst into the sunlight, coughing, rolling over, her face in the light. She tread water, gasping for breath. She waited… and waited, squinting in the bright light. Exhausted and shivering, she swam slowly toward shore. She made it to the rocks, clinging to the round boulders ringing the lake, resting, when she felt strong hands pull her onto the land. Alice opened her eyes, saw a pretty woman in a gray sheriff’s uniform. Alice clung to her, coughing up water while the sheriff patted her back.

“Good to see you, Mrs. Wake. I’m Sheriff Breaker. ”

Alice pushed her wet hair out of her face. “How… how did you know I’d be here? ”

“I didn’t. ” Breaker pointed to the rotting walkway leading into the lake. The remnants of the entrance to the island. “But Alan told me he was going to the island to find you. Seemed like a good guess. ” She draped a blanket over Alice’s shoulders, reached for a thermos she had set nearby. “I just didn’t know if he’d be able to manage it. ”

“Alan…” Alice looked toward the lake, but there was no sign of him. Tears rolled down her cheek, warm against her cool skin.

Breaker poured a cup of coffee, handed it to Alice.

Alice could see the sheriff’s cruiser parked nearby, the door open. “What… what day is it? ”

“It’s Deerfest. ”

The cup of coffee shook in her hand. “I… I was gone a long time. ”

Breaker nodded.

A man on the car’s radio was talking about last night, but Alice couldn’t make out all the words. Something about the night before Deerfest being traditionally a wild time, but last night’s celebration had been over the line, way too destructive. All kinds of vandalism and torched cars, people missing.

“That’s not the Deerfest way, folks, not what we’re all about in Bright Falls. Now, get ready, because the big parade begins in two hours! This is Pat Maine, your host, saying, next year, let’s not give our town a black eye. ”

“You called my husband Alan before, ” Alice said lightly.

“He asked me to. ”

Alice saw her blush. “You must be very special, Sheriff. Alan keeps most people at a distance. ”

“Well…” Breaker looked past her, looked out across the lake. “We went through a lot together these last couple of days. ”

“You became friends? ”

“We became friendly, ” said Breaker, not making eye contact. “We were on our way to being friends, but… he had to leave. ”

“To find me. ”

“Drink some coffee, Mrs. Wake. ”

Alice sipped her coffee. Strong. Sweet, but not too sweet.

“I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through, ” said Breaker. “You must be a real fighter. Most people would have curled up and died. ”

“Alan… I don’t think he’s coming back, ” Alice said softly. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

“No. ” Breaker tossed a rock into the lake, watched the ripples. “No, I don’t think he is. ”

Alice stared out at the lake. “As I was rising toward the light… I thought I heard his voice. ”

Breaker watched her.

“He said, ‘It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean. ’ He said it so clearly, it was as if he was right beside me. ” She looked at Breaker, pulled the blanket around herself, teeth chattering. “An ocean. What does that mean? ”

Breaker shook her head. “I don’t know. ” A seaplane flew in the distance, trailing a Deerfest banner. “A lot of things happened around here in the last week or so… terrible things, and Alan… Mr. Wake blamed himself. Last night, when he left to find you, he said he was going to try to fix things, try to make things right. ”

Her eyes shimmered with the light off the lake. “He said ‘the sooner I’m gone, the sooner this town will get back to normal. ’ The town’s not back to normal, but it’s better off than anyone could have expected. ” She moistened her lips, looked at Alice. “The most important thing for him, the only thing really, was bringing you back, back into the light, and he did that. ” She squeezed Alice’s arm. “He did it. ”

The sun was warm on Alice’s face. The wind stirred the trees and for an instant she thought she heard the sound of someone typing… someone far, far away. She looked across the surface, saw rainbows reflected across every inch of it. “Yes, he did. ”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rick Burroughs lives in a small cabin that he built himself, an A-frame on forty acres in the Pacific Northwest. Effectively off the grid, Burroughs avoids processed food, processed news, and celebrity culture. He has traveled extensively in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. He has not yet found what he is looking for. Alan Wake is his first novel.

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