The Uneventful Life of Harvey Mackler

e p i l o g u e

"It's good exercise," Gia replies.

Amanda sends us an amiable wave goodbye as the three of us set off for the White.

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"How's Abe?" Gia asks me as we wander into another store. "I heard your parents were asking about your instructor cutting his surf retreat short."

"Yeah," I reply, turning over a box of pastel highlighters before returning the item to its shelf. "Abe's coming back at the end of the month. They originally offered to get me a therapist — you know, to deal with everything, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with one yet. Plus, Abe's got experience dealing with surfers with various forms of PTSD, so we're going to see how it goes first."

Gia nods understandingly. "Hopefully it all works well."

She searches around for the fourteen year old British girl placed under our care.

"Leah, you should get this book," Gia says, raising up the notebook for Leah to see. "The paper is really good quality. It's the best for taking notes with, trust me."

I crouch down to pick up an assortment of pens. "You'll need these too. Anything from this brand is incredibly satisfying to write with."

"Ooh, I think I need more too," Gia says, picking up a box for herself. "I think mine have run out. Bella never returns my pens when she borrows them."

Leah lets out a dramatic sigh as she accepts the notebook and pens from us and begins to walk towards the checkout.

As Leah is paying for her items, a box of fairy lights behind the counter catches my eye.

"Think I should get them?" I ask Gia.

"For the Hole?" she inquires. I nod. "Yeah, they'd help brighten up the place. Get them."

The cashier rings up my item and places it in a bag for me while I dig into my purse for cash to pay with.

"How are the renovations going, by the way?" Gia asks as we head for the stationery shop's exit. "I haven't been round back since we started school."

"Still in progress," I reply. "Everyone's getting busy now so there aren't as many hands to help out, but Dad and I are still at it. We're hoping to complete it by the end of next week."

"That's great news," Gia answers as we turn round a corner. "I'll be there for the grand reopening."

"Finn!" Leah calls excitably. She breaks away from us, running forward. Gia and I look up to see her throw herself into her brother's arms. "You're back!"

My heart nearly skips a beat as I take in the sight of Finn's tall figure wrapping his arms around his little sister, wearing a smile that could melt butter. Video calls on small, pixelated screens really do him no justice.

Finn lets out a low chuckle. "Did you really miss me that much? Mum said you guys were out shopping, so I decided to stop over here."

"You weren't supposed to come back till this evening," Leah says. "Did you take an earlier flight? Whatever. I don't care, you're here. Please take me home, your friends keep trying to force me to buy bullet journals and washi tape."