Emma glanced at her.
“What?”
“I haven't felt wind like this in years.”
Emma smiled.
“Dad would've loved hearing that.”
They climbed higher into the mountains.
At the first overlook, they stopped.
Maya looked at the valley below.
“I used to imagine this.”
Emma sat beside her.
“Dad said you wanted to come here.”
“I did.”
“Why didn't you?”
Maya looked at her hands.
“Because after he died, I thought the promise died with him.”
Emma shook her head.
“No. He gave it to Jack.”
“And Jack gave it to you,” Maya said.
Emma looked at the memorial box.
“No.”
She smiled.
“He gave it to all of us.”
That evening, they camped beneath the stars.
Jack opened the box.
Inside was another envelope.
This one was addressed to Maya.
Maya read it silently.
Then she began to cry.
Emma didn't ask what it said.
She simply sat beside her.
After several minutes, Maya finally spoke.
“He wrote, 'You don't owe me a single mile. I just want you to know that I believed you could travel them.'”
Jack looked away.
Emma realized that the coffin-shaped box had never been meant to represent death.
It represented everything Daniel had refused to let death take away.
Chapter Six — The Truth About the Birthday
The following morning, they reached the mountain lake Daniel had once marked on an old map.
Emma recognized it from one of the photographs.