The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks | Page 2

passed. At this time
of year, they had the beach pretty much to themse lves, but Jonah showed no interest in either the
waves or the seagulls that had fascinated him onl y a few months earlier. Instead, he’d wanted to
go to the workshop, and she’d take n him there, although he’d stayed only a few minutes before
leaving without sayi ng a single word.
On the bedstand beside her lay a stack of fram ed photographs from the alcove of the small
beach house, along with other items she’d collected that morning. In the silence, she studied
them until she was interrupted by a knock on the door. Her mom poked her head in.
“Do you want breakfast? I found so me cereal in the cupboard.”
“I’m not hungry, Mom.”
“You need to eat, sweetie.”
Ronnie continued to stare at the pile of phot os, seeing nothing at all. “I was wrong, Mom.
And I don’t know what to do now.” “You mean about your dad?”
“About everything.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
When Ronnie didn’t answer, her mom cro ssed the room and sat beside her.
“Sometimes it helps if you talk. You’ve been so quiet these last couple of days.”
For an instant, Ronnie felt a crush of memori es overwhelm her: the fire and subsequent
rebuilding of the church, the st ained-glass window, the song sh e’d finally finished. She thought
about Blaze and Scott and Marcus. She thought about Will. She was eighteen years old and
remembering the summer she’d been betrayed, the summer she’d been arrested, the summer
she’d fallen in love. It hadn’t been so long ago, yet sometimes she felt that she’d been an
altogether different person back then. Ronnie sighed. “What about Jonah?”
“He’s not here. Brian took him to the shoe st ore. He’s like a puppy. His feet are growing
faster than the rest of him.” Ronnie smiled, but her smile faded as quickly as it had come. In the silence that followed,
she felt her mom gather her long hair and twist it into a loose ponytail on her back. Her mom had
been doing that ever since Ronni e was a little girl. Strangely, she still found it comforting. Not
that she’d ever admit it, of course.

“I’ll tell you what,” her mom went on. She went to the closet and put the suitcase on the
bed. “Why don’t you talk while you pack?” “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“How about at the beginning? Jonah mentioned something about turtles?”
Ronnie crossed her arms, knowing the story hadn’ t started there. “Not really,” she said.
“Even though I wasn’t there when it happened, I think the summer really began with the fire.”
“What fire?”
Ronnie reached for the stack of photographs on the bedstand and gently removed a tattered
newspaper article sandwiched between two fram ed photos. She handed the yellowing newsprint
to her mother. “This fire,” she said. “T he one at the church.”
Illegal Fireworks Suspected in Church Blaze
Pastor Injured
Wrightsville Beach, NC—A fire destroyed historic First Baptist Church on New
Year’s Eve, and investigators suspect illegal fireworks.
Firefighters were summoned by an anonymous caller to the beachfront church just
after midnight and found flames and smoke pouri ng from the back of the structure, said
Tim Ryan, chief of the Wrightsville Beach Fire Department. The remains of a bottle
rocket, an airborne firework, were found at the source of the blaze.
Pastor Charlie Harris was inside the church when the fire started and suffered second-
degree burns to his arms and hands. He was transported to New Hanover Regional
Medical Center and is currently in the intensive care unit.
It was the second church fire in as many months in New Hanover County. In
November, Good Hope Covenant Church in Wilmington was completely destroyed.
“Investigators are still treating it as suspicious, and as a case of potential arson at this
point,” Ryan noted.
Witnesses report that less than twenty minut es before the fire, bottle rockets were
seen being launched on the beach behind the ch urch, likely in celebration of the New Year.
“Bottle rockets are illegal in North Carolina, and are especially dangerous considering the
recent drought conditions,” cautioned Ryan. “This fire shows the reason why. A man is in
the hospital and the church is a total loss.”
When her mom finished reading, she looked up, meeting Ronnie’s eyes. Ronnie hesitated;
then, with a sigh, she began to tell a story that still felt utterly senseless to her,