Dear Dan,

Remember me? Your old friend? I found where you work. I was surprised you had the guts to move back here at all. I thought I’d never find you, but you don’t get much more obvious than adding your name as a byline on articles for the local newspaper.

Are the articles you write even true, or are you still a liar?

I’m going to ruin you, Dan Rowdon. I’m going to ruin you, like you ruined me.

The lighthouse looks identical to Daniel’s memory—the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean behind it and the stone stairs before it, marking the path forward. There are many memories here, most he would prefer to forget but cannot. They’re embedded within the rocks—the very foundation of this place—and they cannot be uprooted easily. It wasn’t his first choice, coming here, but he had run out of options.

Dan had recently been fired. At first, he was sure he could afford to keep his family in their apartment, certain his job at the newspaper would be secure... and it had been...

Until the letters started showing up.

Now, his money had run out and he had no job and no other choice but to give into the inevitable. But should he really be surprised? Dan knew this moment had been coming for a long time—some sort of twisted fate—with the lighthouse at the centre of it, pulling all into its gravitational field.

Dan grew up here and believed he would never return. Now, he’s arrived with his son, Jonathan, trailing behind him and his wife at his side. Maybe it will be better for them than it had been for him.

Jonathan runs past them up the stairs leading to the monstrous lighthouse. “Slow down!” Melissa says through laughter. She’s excited, and Dan tries to match her enthusiasm. “I don’t understand why you never told me your dad left you this place.”

Dan shrugs. “It never came up, I guess. We hadn’t talked in a long time.”

“I know that. I just mean…well if I’d known, I might have suggested we move here first. We could’ve skipped out on that awful apartment all together.” Melissa rarely brings up Dan’s past, a learned behaviour.

They climb up the steps to the front door, several feet above the rocky sandstone beach. The breadth of the sparkling water in their view is staggering and Dan enjoys it immensely, inhaling the salt in the air. It’s the only part of this place he really missed. Melissa is more focused on getting inside, as is Jonathan, so Dan follows them into the lighthouse, the air insidious and stifling compared to outside.

Is he going to be able to do this?

He must.

The interior of the lighthouse is a collection of stacked, round rooms that sit on top of one another, connected by a spiral staircase. The main floor where they now stand is a part of an attached house containing a kitchenette against the far wall, a small bathroom, a dirty couch, and a footstool with a deep depression in its seat. How many times had his father lifted his legs and let them drop on that thing to create such a permanent mark?

Banging suddenly pulls him from his thoughts. Jonathan’s opening all the cupboards he can reach while Melissa twirls around the room, dust billowing around the hem of her dress.

Without ceasing her dancing, Melissa says, “Well, isn’t this something? I think with a little work, we can make this into the perfect home.”