EPILOGUE: THE GATE
Spring arrived with rain that smelled of wet soil instead of cold pavement.
The old schoolhouse remained closed while the city considered what to do with the building.
The chain across its rear doors was new, and a permanent sign warned people not to enter.
I passed it most mornings without stopping.
My replacement camera watched our driveway and the narrow strip of ground beside the gate.
It no longer looked down the schoolhouse alley.
I had chosen that angle after thinking carefully about what I actually needed to protect.
The device recorded ordinary things now.
It caught Lily riding her scooter, Jonah carrying groceries, and a neighborhood cat that liked to sleep beneath the lilacs.
Sometimes it recorded me coming home exhausted and laughing when Lily rushed outside before I had reached the steps.
Vera and I had not returned to our old habit of chatting across the fence.
She had paid for the damage, and I had answered the questions I was asked.
Neither of us pretended that the relationship was unchanged.
One afternoon, I saw her helping Dolores carry a folding chair into the senior center.
She moved slowly and listened while Dolores explained where she wanted the chair placed.
I kept walking.
I did not know whether Vera would ever earn back the trust she had lost.
I only knew that the choice belonged to the people she had harmed, not to the image she wanted to restore.
That evening Lily asked why our new camera faced the gate instead of the alley.
I told her it was there to watch our home.
She considered the small black lens above the door.
‘Then it doesn’t have to see everything,’ she said.
‘No,’ I answered.
I closed the side gate and checked that the latch had caught.
Inside, Jonah was calling us to dinner.
Lily ran ahead of me, leaving her scooter beside the lilacs.
I looked once toward the quiet schoolhouse before following her inside.
The End.
