Epilogue The sun moved slowly across the sky, casting a long familiar shadow over a rusted fire hydrant and a tangle of wild grass. Baron walked towards the edge of the county, his eyes tired but his heart still hunting for a piece of himself he had dropped into the ocean a lifetime ago. He stopped, his boot brushing against something that didn’t feel like stone or root. He knelt in the dirt, his calloused, grease stained hands trembling as he reached into the overgrowth. There, tucked against the iron hydrant, was a modest and rather disregarded looking Bear. His fur was no longer pristine and his heart was weary from eons of waiting but as those kelp green eyes, now faded like the man's own, looked up, Bear felt a jolt of recognition. Baron picked him up, holding him the only way that a man can when he has finally found what he has lost—completely. He brushed the dust from the bear's ears and for the first time since the ship tilted, the charcoal sky didn’t look so bleak. As he held the bear close, the words his father had whispered at the port finally flooded back, clear and resonant. His father had leaned in and said: “Carry the home we made in our heart, Baron. As long as you hold onto what you love, you can never truly be lost.” Baron whispered the words aloud into the quiet Pennsylvania air. Under the warmth of the sun, the puzzle was finally designed perfectly. Neither of them were waiting anymore.
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