The Keeper

Eamon Bryce climbs the seventy-two steps of the decommissioned lighthouse at dawn, as he has every morning since 2012, to clean the Fresnel lens that no longer needs to shine.

Eamon reviews a century of logbook entries while Nora teaches him something about memory he does not yet understand.

Colleen Drury brings chowder and plain talk. Eamon confronts what the lighthouse cannot teach him.

Patrick arrives from Woods Hole. The conversation Eamon has been expecting takes place on the rocks above the water.

The automated fog signal fails in a June fog. Eamon sounds it by hand through the night while Nora sleeps in the house below.

Eamon restores the keeper's office lamp that has not been lit since 1933. Nora remembers things that may not have happened.

The longest day of the year. Nora and Eamon walk the point at sunset. The last good day before the fog comes.

Mid-July. Eamon hauls a fouled lobster trap from the rocks below the point and returns it to Colleen, who tells him what she has been seeing.

December. The shortest days. Eamon adjusts the routines to keep Nora close. The lighthouse in winter is a different creature.

Patrick comes for Christmas. The family gathers in the keeper's house while the lighthouse stands in the snow. The conversation about Harbor Hill begins.

Eamon drives to Rockland alone. He walks through the facility. He sits in the garden and makes a decision he cannot make.

February. The coldest month. Nora makes the decision herself, on a clear morning, in the kitchen, with the list in her hand.

Eamon drives Nora to Harbor Hill on a morning in late February. The twenty-three miles take forty minutes and forty-four years.

Eamon visits Nora at Harbor Hill. She does not know him. She knows the bread.

Spring. Eamon climbs the tower at dawn. The light returns. The keeper writes the last entry in the log.

May. Eamon feeds the sourdough starter alone in the keeper's kitchen, bakes the bread, drives it to Harbor Hill. The culture he maintains is the culture she built.