Gone

The church had only three walls now, and the steeple would probably topple over if there was ever a storm.
    They had burned the dead coyotes. Their ashes and bones filled several large trash cans.
    Sam watched it all, standing a little apart, balancing a plate of food and trying not to spill the dressing.
    “Astrid, tell me if this is crazy: I’m thinking if there are any leftovers, we could send them up to Coates,” Sam said. “You know, a peace offering.”
    “No. Not crazy,” she said. Astrid put her arm around his waist.
    “You know, I’ve had this plan in mind for a while,” Sam said.
    “What plan?”
    “It involved you and me just sitting on the beach.”
    “Just sitting?”
    “Well…”
    “He says, allowing his elliptical tone to imply any number of things.”
    Sam smiled. “I’m all about elliptical implications.”
    “Are you going to tell me what happened during the big blink?”
    “I am. I will. Maybe not today.” He nodded toward Little Pete, who hunched over a plate of food and rocked back and forth. “I’m glad he’s okay.”
    “Yeah,” Astrid said shortly. Then, “I think the injury, the blow to his head…oh, never mind. Let’s not talk about Petey for once. Give your speech and then let’s go and see if you even know what ‘elliptical’ means.”
    “My speech?”
    “Everyone’s waiting,” she said.
    Sure enough, he realized, there were expectant glances in his direction and a feeling of unfinished business in the air.
    “Got any more good quotes I can rip off?”
    She thought for a moment. “Okay, here’s one. ‘With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds….’ President Lincoln.”
    Sam said, “Yeah, that’s totally going to happen, I’m going to give a speech that sounds like that.”
    “They’re all still scared,” she said. Then she corrected herself. “We’re all still scared.”
    “It’s not over,” Sam said. “You know that.”
    “It’s over for today.”
    “We have pie,” he agreed. Then, with a sigh, he climbed up onto the edge of the fountain. “Um, people.”
    It wasn’t hard to get their attention. They gathered around. Even the littlest ones toned down their giggling, at least a bit.
    “First of all, thanks to Albert and his helpers for this meal. Let’s give it up for the true Mac Daddy.”
    A round of hearty applause and some laughter, and Albert waved sheepishly. He frowned a little too, obviously conflicted about the use of the “Mac” prefix in a way that was not approved in the McDonald’s manual.
    “And we have to mention Lana and Dahra, because without them, there would be a lot fewer of us here.”
    Now the applause was almost reverential.
    “Our first Thanksgiving in the FAYZ,” Sam said when the applause died down.
    “Hope it’s our last,” someone shouted.
    “Yeah. You got that right,” Sam agreed. “But we’re here. We’re here in this place we never wanted to be. And we’re scared. And I’m not going to lie and tell you that from here on, it will all be easy. It won’t be. It will be hard. And we’ll be scared some more, I guess. And sad. And lonely. Some terrible things have happened. Some terrible things…” For a moment, he lost his way. But then he stood up straighter again. “But, still, we are grateful, and we give thanks to God, if you believe in Him, or to fate, or to just ourselves, all of us here.”
    “To you, Sam,” someone shouted.
    “No, no, no.” He waved that off. “No. We give thanks to the nineteen kids who are buried right there.” He pointed at thesix rows of three, plus the one who started a seventh row. Neat hand-painted wooden tombstones bore the names of Bette and too many others.
    “And we give thanks to the heroes who are standing around here right now eating turkey. Too many names to mention, and they’d all just be embarrassed, anyway, but we all know them.”
    There was a wave of loud, sustained applause, and many faces turned toward Edilio and Dekka, Taylor and Brianna, and some toward Quinn.
    “We all hope this will end. We all hope we’ll soon be back in the world with people we love. But right now, we’re here. We’re in the FAYZ. And what we’re going to do is work together, and look out for each other, and help each other.” People nodded, some high-fived.
    “Most of us are from Perdido Beach. Some are