Jim Hopper

As the seasons once more began to shift, as the weather turned cool, I realized I had been back in Darrow again for nearly two years. A drop in the bucket, truly, when it came to the long length of my life, and somehow, it still stunned me. Had it really been that long since I had last seen Charlie and Nod? Since I sailed the Jolly Roger toward the horizon and hoped against all hope I might sail away from Peter’s prison? Only to have it succeed, finally, after hundreds of attempts.

Not for the first time, I wished I could have taken them with me. They deserved better lives than the ones Peter had damned them, too. There were days when I felt guilt over simply being here, being allowed to have the thing they could not.

Not that my guilt would do them any good. Not that they would have wanted it.

This, what was happening now, this was what they would have wanted for me.

Earlier in the day, I had opened our mailbox and taken out a letter from Barton University and then, in a panic, I had shoved it into the pocket of my coat and hurried out for a walk. My heart thundered in my chest as I made my way to the boardwalk where I paused to stare out at the Jolly Roger, moored peacefully in the distance. I could take my small boat, row out there, prowl the low halls and the creaking deck, but to what end?

I could miss my friends and still be happy I was here. A second chance. Or was it my third?

I should have opened the letter with Eddie, but he didn’t even know I had applied. I should have waited until I got home. However, in that moment, I couldn’t. My fear of being rejected was great, but my excitement was greater and I walked back to the sidewalk and then tore open the letter with the tip of my hook.

As I scanned the letter, it felt as though my heart and breath both stopped. I suddenly forgot how to read. Then my eyes caught on the words that mattered most. We are pleased to offer you a place in our Social Development Studies Program, with the option to…

The rest didn’t matter. I had been accepted.

I stood there, stunned, the letter clutched in my hand. Then I burst into delighted laughter, my shoulders shaking with the force of it. I had known so much happiness in Darrow and yet it kept getting better. Every single day was better than the last and this would now change the course of everything else I was able to do.

It would be hard work, but within two years, I could be a Social Worker. I could be the one helping again, really helping.

“Yes!” I shouted up at the sky and then laughed anew.

[[Old friends, new friends, come see Jamie, pleeeeease!]]