9

Coming around the head of the lake, he saw the place where sand met sidewalk 100 feet away. He loved this part of his late-night runs, when he’d already finished four laps and was nearing the end of his last. Dodging the spots where the birds had been, or where dogs had left their mark, he set his sights on that rough transition and braced himself for pavement—a better surface for training, but harder to take in the joints. Easy Oakland waves slipped past the edges of the path, leaving no trace of the secrets they carelessly kept. They say that bodies were dumped from this very shore, and every year, late summer, trawlers plunged their hooks and nets into the silty bottom to catch and remove all that remained.