Page 140 of Between Hello and Goodbye

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The mid-morning water was calm as I took my speedboat out to the coordinates that Captain Gary had given me.

I headed toward open water, checking the dial now and then, and keeping an eye on the salt urn strapped securely to the seat beside me. It was pale peach streaked with white and would sink to the bottom, to the same place where Nalani’s had gone down. Over time, it would dissolve into the water, its salt blending with the salt of the ocean. The ashes would flow out and the current would catch them and carry them all over the world, then come back here. To this place. Home.

When I arrived at the coordinates, I killed the engine and let it drift. I took the salt urn and sat with it at the stern of the boat, on the gunwale. It was heavy, heavier than I had expected it to be when I first received it, and yet so light. How could one small vessel contain a whole life? But it couldn’t, I knew, because Morgan was not ashes in an urn. He was all around me. The water, the whales, the light, and the sand. All of this life and everything in it…that’s how big he was.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. I stopped trying to hold them back and let them fall, then inhaled a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please forgive me.”

I held the urn a moment longer, my hands running over the surface, smooth and cool. I inhaled raggedly and continued.

“Thank you. Thank you, Morgan.”

I bent over the side of the boat and touched the urn to the water. My tears dropped beside it and were absorbed into the vast blue ocean.

“I love you,” I whispered and let the urn slide gently into the sea, to take its place beside Nalani’s.

It sank down, glowing bright blue as the salt caught the reflection of the light, and when I couldn’t see it anymore, I sat up and closed my eyes. I felt the warmth of the sun over my face while the waves rocked softly beneath me.

And I smiled because he was with her again and they were home.