Thief River Falls

by Brian Freeman

A long, miserable walk that ended at the bank of the Red Lake River.

Lisa knew the road she was trying to find. It was called Riverbend Trail,

He’d grown up near parks and farm fields, where it was easy to walk half a block and feel like he was the only person in the world, but since moving to Janie’s apartment in downtown Fargo, he’d discovered that he liked being around other people.

He’d been an introvert for most of his life, just like his sister, but Janie had brought him out of his shell. That was how he knew she was the one.

She placed both of his hands on the warmth of her swollen middle, where she carried their child. The son who would be born in three months.

Nick panicking, trying to escape. The men chasing him down.

Four men. Deputy Garrett. Deputy Stoll. A ginger-haired killer named Liam. And Denis Farrell.

He was going to exact revenge on Nick Loudon.

She examined the gray ridges of the trunk. Five feet off the ground, she found the burn marks where the friction of the rope had eaten away the bark in two parallel lines as Nick struggled.

Lisa spotted something on the ground, caught in the bulging roots of the tree trunk.

It was not an acorn. It was a man’s finger, sliced cleanly at the knuckle.

One girl wore a white bubble coat down to her knees,

Also known as a parka

She took a confident step into the closet and swung her belt over the high rod. She needed a chair, and there was a makeup chair in the bedroom, so she dragged it into the closet with her.

Lisa climbed onto the chair and rested on her knees. The belt was right there, waiting for her. All she had to do was tighten the loop around her throat and kick away the chair.

She’d expected the ghosts to be happy with her decision.

Instead, all she could see were shadows where their faces should be and hear them calling like the whistle of the wind through the old windows. Nooooooooooo.

“I still don’t know where Harlan is. I don’t know where she took him.”

Purdue’s name is Harlan.

“She took Harlan from his hospital room to the cemetery. A groundskeeper dug up the grave tonight and found the boy’s body there, wrapped in a sheet. Really, I don’t know why I didn’t think to send someone over there before now. I should have guessed that’s what she would do. After Harlan died, she took him away from the hospital to be with his father. She buried him with Danny.”

Laurel knew what Lisa didn’t, that Noah had been on the verge of suicide before he moved away. That he’d sat in Lisa’s basement with a loaded gun in his mouth. The only thing Lisa knew was that a month after her brother had bolted from her life, her only son had been diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer, and she’d been left to deal with it alone.

“I thought the Dark Star was me,” he murmured in a strangled voice. “I really did. I thought I was the curse, that I was the reason they all died.”

Lisa’s brother thought he was the Dark Star.

She wants to tell him that life is about leaving, but that love is about memories.

Could someone explain to me what this means in more detail?

“You couldn’t. No one could. Not the doctors. Not anybody. It’s not your fault, Mom. But I have to go now.”

I mean, unless you want to go back to your house in Lake Bronson.”

Lisa lives in Lake Bronson, Minnesota.