Prosis -

Elena looked at her oldest friend. Then she stood, walked to the shelf, and took down an empty box. It was oak, unfinished, without a name. She placed it on the table between them.

“I need you to keep something for me,” Celeste went on. “Not in a box. In you. The worst thing I ever did.” prosis

Celeste would come again. They would sit at the pine table. They would not speak of the mill, or the fire, or the lantern. They would speak of the rain, the river, the deer in the circling forest. Elena looked at her oldest friend

They sat across from each other at the pine table where Elena’s grandmother had once sat with a dying soldier who whispered the location of a buried payroll he had stolen. The soldier died that night. The payroll was never found. The secret stayed in the box marked Anonymous. 1944. She placed it on the table between them