The Discarded

CHAPTER 37

From Abraham’s gravesite they could hear the waves crashing on the beach, a gentle metronome marking time for those to whom time didn’t matter anymore.

Quinn had thought only he and Orlando and Nate and Daeng would be at the service, but a surprising amount of others had shown up — including about a dozen old colleagues from the business and Quinn’s sister, Liz. She had never met Abraham but knew he’d been important to Orlando and that was enough for her. Perhaps most surprising were the kids, nearly thirty of them, all from the afterschool tutoring center where Abraham had volunteered.

“Did he realize how many lives he touched?” Quinn asked Orlando after the crowd had drifted off, leaving them alone with her mentor.

“I doubt it. He never thought of things that way. He just did what he did.”

When he put an arm around her waist, she laid her head against his shoulder and they looked past the grave, out at the sea.

“It’s beautiful here. He’ll be happy.”

She nodded and they fell silent again. The ordeal and the loss had exhausted her. He made a vow to himself that until Orlando was fully recovered, he would do whatever it took to convince her not to go into the field.

He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. After a few minutes, he said, “Ready?”

“Just a second.”

She knelt beside the open grave.

“I’ve never been keen on Abraham as a first name,” she said, “but I’ve been thinking it would work well as a middle. I mean, if it’s a boy.”

“Wait, what?”