Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

11:55 p.m.

Fat, wet snowflakes hit the windows as Ethan waits for midnight. He stretches out half asleep on the couch, barely watching the hordes of revelers whooping it up in Times Square. On the coffee table in front of him is a half-finished beer, a half-drunk root beer, and a half-eaten pizza.

I sure know how to party, he thinks with a lazy smile.

In his defense, it's been a busy day. Ethan's parents came up from Florida for Christmas, heading back only that morning. That afternoon, he visited Vance Wallace, finding him blessedly lucid, which isn't always the case. Then that evening, Ragesh and his husband came over for dinner, leaving early when the snow started to fall.

If the forecast is correct, there'll be almost a foot on the ground by morning. Ethan makes a mental note to brew extra coffee tomorrow so he can pass it out as everyone on Hemlock Circle gathers to clear their driveways. The cul-de-sac always seems to take on a party atmosphere when it snows. A far cry from the somberness that descended over the neighborhood once the truth about Billy's death was revealed.

It was chaos there for a little bit, as reporters swarmed the cul-de-sac like wasps. Ethan had so many people sneaking into his yard that he had to take down the trail cam because it kept pinging from dawn to dusk.

The attention, thankfully, didn't last long once people realized there was nothing sensational about what had really happened. In unsavory areas of the internet that Ethan no longer bothers to venture, people even expressed disappointment that the truth was so mundane, so boringly human.

There were no villains in this story.

Nor were there heroes.

Just a neighborhood of flawed people, some more than others.

So the media moved on. Hemlock Circle did, too. It's amazing to Ethan how much the neighborhood has changed in eighteen months, with new faces moving in now that most of the old ones have departed. Vance Wallace was the first to go. With Ethan's help, he put his house on the market and used the proceeds to pay for an assisted-living facility. Thanks to the skyrocketing housing market, he'll be taken care of for the rest of his life.

Fritz and Alice Van de Veer were next, followed, dishearteningly, by the Chens. Russ claimed it was because they needed more space after his second child was born. A girl. He and Jennifer named her Hannah. That may be true, but Ethan suspects he had something to do with the move. Once it became clear Ethan wasn't going anywhere, Russ decided to do it instead.

Ethan and Russ are no longer friends. Nor are they enemies. They exist in that strange space where too much has been done and said to each other for the rift to ever truly heal. Still, Ethan wishes him well, and hopes Russ does the same for him.

As for Andy Barringer, Ethan has seen him exactly twice since that night at the falls. Once when Billy was at long last buried next to his father, and six months later when Mary Ellen Barringer joined them. Having narrowly escaped a kidnapping charge, thanks to some pleading from Ashley, and Detective Palmer for once looking the other way, Andy is again off the grid.

But his old house finally sold, making it the fourth home on Hemlock Circle to have changed hands. Soon it will be five, because at dinner earlier, Ragesh told Ethan that his parents would be listing theirs in the spring. When that happens, Ethan Marsh will become the last original resident of Hemlock Circle—a development he never, ever expected.

But it's been nice seeing new families move in and breathe life into the place. All of them have children, ranging in age from six to sixteen. There's even a boy next door who's Henry's age and, wonder of wonders, just as intellectually curious. They spent most of the summer together collecting insects, identifying plants, and plowing through a mind-boggling number of Goosebumps books.

To Ethan, seeing Henry blossom is the best change of all. He attends the same private school where Ethan teaches. He has friends there, too, plus the adoration of the school librarian, Miss Quinn, who might also have a little bit of a crush on Ethan. Before the holiday break, she asked if he wanted to go out for coffee sometime. Ethan said yes, even after Henry informed him that "going out for coffee" is secret code for a date. Ethan's not sure where Henry heard this, just as he's not sure he wants to know.

"How is he?" Ashley asks every time she phones Ethan like clockwork each Thursday evening. A collect call from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.

"He's doing great," Ethan always tells her, and he always means it.

It took Ethan awhile to come to terms with what Ashley did. Some days, he still grapples with it, and a flare of anger will hit him so hard it takes his breath away. He found it surprisingly easy to forgive her for killing Billy. It was an accident, Ashley didn't intend to hurt him, and she's made her remorse clear ever since. It's the cover-up that Ethan still can't quite move past. It would have spared everyone so much pain if Ashley had simply confessed then, instead of waiting thirty years.

Then again, if she had, there would be no Henry. And Ethan can't imagine his life without the boy.

On the couch, watching the hour tick ever closer to midnight, Ethan thinks about that night at the falls. He often does. How he and Henry remained slumped by the water as cops and rescue workers stormed the area, Detective Cassandra Palmer and Ragesh Patel among them.

Ashley was still there, too, already in police custody, although Ragesh had delayed putting her in handcuffs until she got a chance to wrap her arms around Henry. He returned the hug hesitantly, as if unsure she was still his mother and not a stranger.

"I'm going away for a little bit," she told him. "I just need you to know that I love you more than anything in this world."

Then Ashley grabbed Ethan, pulling him into a desperate, clutching embrace so she could whisper in his ear.

"I want you to take care of Henry," she said. "I know I'm asking so much of you. But my dad can't do it on his own. Henry needs you. I need you. Promise me you'll take care of my son."

Ethan did.

And he has.

And he wants to continue to do so for as long as possible.

After pleading guilty, Ashley was sentenced twice, ten years for the vehicular manslaughter of Billy Barringer and ten years for disposing of his body. Because she was a minor at the time and showed remorse, the judge is allowing her to serve them concurrently, with a chance for parole after eight years.

"Henry will be at least eighteen when I get out," Ashley told Ethan a few months into her sentence. "He deserves to have a family until then."

"You're his family," Ethan said.

"A legal family. A real family. Right now, all he has is a convicted killer for a mother, and that's going to hang over him for the rest of his life." Ashley paused then, and even in her silence Ethan could tell she was crying. "That's why I think you should adopt him."

Ethan didn't resist, and with Ashley's official consent, he legally became Henry's father. A decision Ethan knows was the right one when, at midnight, he goes upstairs to what was once his childhood bedroom. It's Henry's now, reflecting the boy's interests and tastes. Animals and planets and dinosaurs. Peering inside, Ethan can barely remember what it looked like when it was his.

Henry's in bed, reading in the soft glow cast by his bedside lamp. Not a surprise. He often stays up past his bedtime to read.

For a time, Ethan had worried that the events at the falls would dim Henry's special light. That he would harden his heart so it would never be wounded again. So far, that hasn't happened. Ethan's trying his best to make it stay that way.

After watching Henry unnoticed a moment, he says, "Happy New Year, sport."

Ethan stopped calling him Mr. Wallace long ago, just as Henry stopped addressing him as Mr. Marsh two nights after his mother was arrested. He's called him Ethan ever since. But on this night, Henry looks up from his book and says, "Happy New Year, Dad."

It takes Ethan a minute to collect himself after that. He never expected to be called that word. He never wanted it, either. But now that it's been spoken, he never wants to hear Henry refer to him as anything else.

"What are you reading?" he says, trying to keep his emotions in check.

Henry pushes his glasses higher onto his nose. "An old book. I found it on the top shelf."

He lifts the book to reveal a familiar title: The Giant Book of Ghosts, Spirits, and Other Spooks.

It provides Ethan with a pleasant zip of surprise. Although he'd forgotten the book was still there, it makes him happy to see that Henry discovered it.

"Have you looked at it before?"

"No," Henry says. "But I'm intrigued. It looks like Goosebumps."

Ethan sits on the edge of the bed. "It's like a thousand Goosebumps. It used to belong to a friend of mine. Someone very special."

He doesn't tell Henry it once was Billy's for the same reason they don't talk about that fateful night at the falls. Considering all that's happened, Ethan's not sure how Henry would react. He suspects Henry knows anyway, for he handles the book with a gentleness not used on his battered paperbacks.

"Then you should have it," he says.

"No," Ethan says. "I've looked at it enough. It's yours now. Although you should get some sleep. It's late."

"Five more minutes?"

Ethan smiles before indulging him. He knows that five will be at least thirty. "Sure. But only five."

Henry touches the book, as if he can sense how valuable it is to both Ethan and the boy who once owned it. Ethan then puts his hand on top of Henry's, and together, they turn the page.