A MEMORY OF SAM

Luke stood alone at the riverbank, watching the Mississippi move beneath the pale morning light.The water was different today. Or maybe he was.

Since returning to Belle Rive, he had found himself remembering things he'd spent years trying to forget. His father's voice. The smell of tobacco on his work shirt. The way Sam McCall would stand on the porch at dusk, staring toward the river as though the water had answers no one else could hear.

And then there was the conversation with Miss Clara.

Luke closed his eyes. He could still hear her voice.

"There were two of them, Luke."

She had spoken those words quietly, almost reluctantly.

"Two men came after your daddy."

Luke remembered the way her hands had trembled in her lap. "I know one of them."

"Simmons?" "Snake Eye Simmons."

She nodded. "Yes. Snake Eye. I'd know that man anywhere."  

 Luke opened his eyes and stared across the river.

He remembered asking her the question that had haunted him ever since.

"Who was the other man?"

Miss Clara had looked away. "I don't know."

At the time, Luke had pressed her. "You're sure?"

Her eyes were filled with tears. "I saw two men. I heard their voices. I knew Simmons. But the other one..." She had shaken her head. "I never saw his face clearly enough to swear who he was."

Luke remembered the frustration he'd felt.

He had wanted a name. A second name. Someone to blame. Someone to find.

But Miss Clara had only given him the truth she possessed. She knew Snake Eye Simmons had been there. She knew there had been another man. But she had never known for certain who that man was.

Luke let out a slow breath. For so long, he'd carried the second man around in his mind like a ghost with a face he couldn't see.

Perhaps that was all the man would ever be.A shadow. A voice. A pair of footsteps disappearing into the darkness.

 Luke reached into his coat and touched the folded letter his father had left behind.

He had learned many things since coming home.Some truths had hurt. Others had healed wounds he hadn't even known were there. But one thing had finally become clear. He didn't need to invent an answer simply because he wanted one.

Miss Clara had told him what she knew. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Snake Eye Simmons had been one of the men responsible for his father's death. 

The identity of the second man remained unknown. And perhaps, Luke thought, that was where the story needed to end. For now.

He looked down at the river. The current carried a small piece of driftwood past his boots. Luke watched it disappear around the bend.

"Some secrets aren't ready to be found," he whispered.

Then he turned toward town. He had no idea how wrong he was.

Because beneath the muddy water of the Mississippi, something was already waiting for him. Something that would make him question everything he thought he knew. And this time..the river was going to give up its secret.