Chapter 4
The Longest Day
The narrator returns to the field on the summer solstice, follows the instructions from M's note—standing at the tree at sunset, walking the number of steps equal to their age when they first heard the phrase—and discovers a hidden stone with a carved arrow and a new letter from Juokas, which reveals the next step and deepens the mystery.
The longest day arrived with a sky so clear it ached. I had marked it on every calendar I owned, the way a child marks a birthday they cannot stop thinking about. The email had come three weeks before, a single word—"Soon"—and then the date and time: June 21, sunset. I had replied, but the message bounced back from an address I couldn't trace. The sender remained unknown, but I felt certain it was connected to the thread.
I drove to the field an hour before sunset. The road was dustier than I remembered, the grass along the verge bleached gold by the summer heat. I parked at the same spot as before, the car engine ticking as it cooled. The tree stood in the center of the field like a sentinel, its branches heavy with leaves. I carried nothing but a small backpack with water, the compass from the second box, and the photograph of the windowless building. The brass compass felt warm in my palm, its cracked glass catching the light.
I walked to the tree and placed my hand on its trunk. The bark was rough, the carved letters—J + ?—now deeper, as if the tree had grown around them. I knelt and touched the roots where I had left the stone. It was still there, a small gray marker. Someone had seen it. I didn't know if that comforted me or made me more uneasy.
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