Page 19 of The Witches of Cambridge

“Going back to Shithole, Maine?” he called.

“It has a name,” Ava said. “Genesis.”

“Aw. Biblical.” He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. “In the beginning,” he said. He was acting like an ass, and he knew it. He was about to stalk away when he heard her softly say, “It’s not the beginning. It’s the end.” Jamie turned to face her, and Ava explained. “That’s what going home feels like to me.”

All at once, the crows rose into the air, calling out and circling. Their sudden flight startled the wild geese, who began to honk and hiss and run along the riverbank.

“Stay,” Ava told Jack, who stood at the edge of the water, growling at the geese. Jack usually did as he was told, but this time he set off so fast he didn’t hear her command. He chased the geese to the edge of the water, and when they didn’t stop, neither did he. They flew into the water, and Jack crashed in after them, focused on his prey. It was an ancient response; it was in his blood and bones to chase them.

Cambridge was quiet in summer; it had been this way when Rose Bridewell first crossed the river from Boston looking for a safe place for a woman such as herself. Jack kept swimming in place, and that was when Ava and Jamie both realized he was trapped. Water weeds had wrapped around Jack’s chest in a tangle of black vines, and although he was doing his best to keep his head above water, he was sinking, pulled down into the deep.

Clouds of mosquitoes and gnats circled, and pollen fell into the water and turned the shallows green. Jamie’s mother had warned that their doctor insisted swimming would be bad for Jamie’s lungs, so he’d been stuck there on the grass watching his brothers dive into the pond on the edge of their property while he sat there broiling in the sun. The most he’d ever done was wade in up to his ankles, and he’d always stopped then, remembering his mother’s stern warning. But now he ran into the river, without thinking, still wearing his watch. He was up to his waist before Ava had managed to reach the bank, screaming for Jack to come back to her.

The dog was snapping at the river water as if he could free himself that way, biting his way out of his watery trap.

“Hold on, boy,” Jamie told him as he drew near. “I’ll get you.”

The water was so cold Jamie was shuddering; he could barely speak. He could see the shadows of shopping carts there among the weeds. Although he’d never been swimming, he now did so as if it were second nature, as if he’d been doing it all his life and his lungs were made for it. When he reached Jack, he attempted to dive so that he might free the dog, but he couldn’t plunge under the water. He tried again and again, but it was impossible for him to dive below the surface.

Ava was there beside him by now, swimming awkwardly, the girl whose mother always demanded she stay on dry land. She had seen that Jamie couldn’t dive beneath the water, and when she tried, she couldn’t either. That was when she knew why her parents had forbidden her to swim. Water told the truth about who was a witch and who was not. But there were other tests as well. How deep was your love, how much could you see when you looked at another, how brave could you be?

Jamie felt his pulse beating, wild and out of control. Ava was drenched, her blouse falling away from her like the petals of a flower. This was it and he knew it, no matter how much he might try to deny it.

“We’ll haul him out,” Jamie called to Ava. They linked their arms around the dog and pulled as hard as they could. They tugged until at last they freed him from the tangled weeds and then from the metal slats of the shopping cart that had trapped him. Jamie swam toward shore with one arm, supporting the dog around his chest until they reached the riverbank. Once he was on dry land, Jack shook himself and then lay at Jamie’s feet.

Ava walked out of the river, her hair streaming down her back, her clothing filthy and drenched. Sometimes you don’t know why you’ve gone somewhere until you’ve reached your destination. They had nearly convinced themselves that they despised one another, but they couldn’t do that now. This was the way it happened, the fate you didn’t expect, the one that occurred when you were on a riverbank, when you were drowning even though you were standing right there in the grass, when you couldn’t run away from your future or your past.