He walked slowly out to the water and watched the waves lap at the sand. The cool water rolled over his toes and the moonlight turned everything a haunted silvery color. He felt so bottomlessly sad that the feeling was almost comforting, like a long-lost friend, rich with memory and possibility. Like life was real and this moment was important. He told himself to remember the feeling. To remember this walk. To use it in his music. Not wanting the moment to end, he followed the tide line along the beach. Jake wasn’t sure where Cameron’s property ended, but the beach went on forever. He enjoyed the way the wet sand gave under his toes, the way it compressed and grew denser as his feet pressed down on it. Up ahead, he saw a shape in the sand. A boulder of darkness. It wasn’t moving. When he got closer, he saw that it was a person, sitting with legs curled up. He wondered who else could be out here at this hour. Then, when he was closer still, he saw the blond waves and the posture of the body and realized, with a sinking dread, that it was Nathaniel, staring, as though in a daze, out at the water.
