Chapter 140 - Chapter 140: The Arrival

October came in gold, the whole shore going over at once the way it did some years — the maples holding their color for a week and then letting it go, the lake taking the fallen leaves in along the reeds, the mornings sharp with the first frosts. The garden was done, its work complete; the jar shelf stood full in the pantry, a whole summer in a row. The rose had dropped its last petals on a night of cold rain, and Aaron checked the spot every morning anyway, the way some men check the weather, because a thing that came back once could come back again.