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The Lighthouse Keeper

mysteryEveryone
5 contributors · 4 paragraphs deep

Pete refused to go near the lighthouse. Instead he handed Mara an old brass key from his drawer. 'I kept a copy all these years,' he said. 'If you're going up there, go alone. Some things only show themselves to one person at a time.' Mara took the key and headed for the water.

Mara rowed out, unlocked the heavy door with Pete's key, and climbed to the lamp room. Inside she found stacks of letters, all addressed to the town, never sent. The last keeper had written to them every single year, telling them he was fine and still keeping the light. No one had ever come to read them.

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Mara carried the letters back to town and read them aloud in the square. People cried hearing the old keeper's words after all these years. They rowed out together that very day and found him still up there, frail but smiling. He'd waited forty years for someone to finally answer. Now the whole town visited, and the light shone on.

MV
Maris Vale
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