Resurrection House by James Chambers

in a city shunned by neighboring communities for the odd disease that afflicted them, cut off from the rest of the world but for a single bus line that carried meager traffic to and from the rotting place. Her people had been subjected to constant persecution by other communities in the region and by a government that feared and despised their religion. Lynna and her grandmother had fled to avoid being taken away by federal agents and placed in a camp like so many of her friends and neighbors had been. And, now, she told me, it seemed she would soon have to flee again.
    “They’re in town. I’ve seen them around,” she said. “They haven’t found us, but they know we’re here. They’ll locate us soon. Grandma and I have to run again.”
    I didn’t want to believe her, but her voice and face showed no signs of falsehood. “Who’s in town?”
    “The government men. Federal agents. They’ve been hunting my family and everyone else like us in secret for decades. Maybe you’ll see them around. Maybe you won’t. They blend in, but I know what to look for. Somehow they followed me and Grandma here. Only a matter of time before they find our house.”
    “What does the government want with you? You never did anything wrong. Did you?”
    “I told you, it’s because of my family, because of things they did in the past. Grandma and I have to be punished for it.”
    “You’re making this up.”
    “I wish!” she said. “You think I want to leave? You think this is the first town we’ve stopped in and then run away from? I tried to be a friend to you, Dennis. And I tried to be something more to you, because I think that you deserve a better life than what you have. We both do, and for the last few weeks, you’ve made me feel human again. I can’t ever thank you enough for that, for what you’ve given me. I don’t want it to end.”
    Minutes passed in stillness. We sat amidst the murmurs of the creek and the wind through the high branches of the oaks and the low calls of the seagulls, and after some time I took Lynna’s hand and said, “I think I love you, Lynna.”
    I had hoped she might kiss me then, but instead she looked away. She was crying.
    I put my hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off, then stood and bolted into the woods, leaving me too stunned and confused to call after her.
    That was the last time I saw her, and the last time I thought I ever would see her.
    She never returned to school. The next day, strange men in dark suits walked the halls with our principal, and though none of the students knew who they were, I guessed they were the men Lynna feared, burly, clean-cut, chisel-jawed men who strode by with confidence and authority. I went to Lynna’s house after school, but no one answered the doorbell. I went back every day for a week, until one afternoon the door cracked open an inch and an ugly eye peered out from the shadows within. The stink of wet rot and salt wafted out.
    I asked for Lynna.
    “Lynna’s gone,” her cousin said. “Went away with her Gran’mama. Now git out of here.”
    I walked home through the woods in the dimming twilight and told myself Lynna would come back once the federal agents left, once the coast was clear, but I knew that she never would. I made up my mind that one day I, too, would leave Knicksport, and never come home again.
    * * * * *
    I conspired to free Lynna from Dagmar.
    Lynna told me of others like herself who dwelled below the waves, thousands if not millions, spread throughout all the seas of the world, hidden from humankind. Her school, her clan, would be seeking her, because they instinctively knew when one of them rose to the surface and moved onto dry land. They would free her violently if need be, but it could be avoided if I simply helped her return to the sea. She had heard from her cousins that I would be traveling the waters near her home and had followed our ship for several days, hoping for a glimpse of me, when the storm hit. Caught