Homecoming

He never got to see his daughter.

It was a cruel trick for fate to play, wrecking his boat the day before she was born.

That was four months ago. She’d loved summer storms.

But tonight was a special night. The night people left food out for the fairies and shut their doors to wandering ghosts.

So she’d put on her best dress and lit a candle in her window.

There was a knock at the door, slow and heavy. A drip of water. A smell of salt.

She kissed her daughter’s tiny head. “Hey baby,” she said. “Daddy’s home.”

—–

Traditionally, Hallowe’en was the night the dead tried to return home.