place where the ruin had once stood and tried to summon words to describe what I felt, but nothing came. The tower was gone; only a bit of the original church remained, surrounded by a small number of tombstones standing cracked and tilted.
In place of the castle stood a formidable structure still under construction. The building appeared to have four floors at the center, while the wings on either side had three. A fence encircled the entire site. A sign affixed to the gated entrance read:
FUTURE SITE OF THE ARTANE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR ROMAN CATHOLIC BOYS
“It’s gone,” I heard Matilda say at my side. “Did you know of pending construction here?”
“No,” I said. “With work and my reviews, there has been little time for much else.”
Vambéry drew closer and pecked at the dirt with the tip of his cane. “I spent time in a place like this. I was injured as a toddler, and my leg was paralyzed. My father died when I was six. Soon after, my mother remarried and turned her attention to my stepfather and the children she bore for him. My mother relinquished me—I was orphaned, for all intents and purposes. There were hundreds of boys, many of whom were criminals by the age of ten. And me—a cripple with a cane—you can imagine my life was hell. Thankfully, I was quite clever and a good student, and was chosen to be a tutor for other boys. Still, I loathe my memories of that place. I knew I would be better off in the streets than incarcerated in that cesspool of abuse. I escaped at age twelve and never looked back.”
I faced the remains of the church, the only remnant of the original structure. “The tower where we found the box stood right there.”
“You said yourself everything you found had been removed the very next day. Had the castle still stood today, perhaps we would have found nothing of value inside,” Vambéry said.
I turned to him, puzzled. “Then why are we here?”
He turned towards the forest on our left and pointed at the trees with his cane. “You must take me to the bog you found as children. The castle may be gone, but the woods remain untouched.”
At the mere mention of this, my thoughts went to the image of the hand reaching out from the water and snatching a dragonfly mid-flight. I saw Nanna Ellen walk from the shore into the murky water and disappear beneath. I saw all these things I had refused to see for so many years.
“Do you recall where it was?”
When last I stood here, I had been drawn to Nanna Ellen, pulled along behind her with Matilda following behind me. I had sensed her nearby. On this night, there was no tug at my mind, no invisible cord tethering me to her. No trail to follow.
Regardless, I started towards the woods. I knew the location as well as my own hand. “This way.”
Matilda gave me a knowing glance. When we had made this journey as children, I could see in the dark as if it were daylight. I think she wondered if the same held true now. The look I gave her told all, yet I dared not speak of it aloud; I could only imagine what Vambéry thought of me as it was.
Although years had passed, I recalled each footfall, each twist through the brush. The ash trees had grown taller and wider, yet each one was familiar. I recognized the swirl of their bark, the roots protruding from the moist ground. Night creatures studied us from the brush, and I wondered if these were the same animals I spotted all those years ago, or their descendants now plodding away on the same grounds as their ancestors. Vambéry and Matilda swatted at mosquitoes and other irritating insects, none of which bothered me, not a single one.
When the bog came into view, I saw the gloomy waters through the eyes of my seven-year-old self. This time Nanna Ellen was not standing upon the shore. This time we were alone.
“Is this it?” Vambéry asked.
I nodded.
“You are certain?”
“Yes.”
He walked to the water’s