About Grace

As time passes, the inn begins to succumb to wear and tear; the reef under the floor is dying, and the floor is beginning to buckle. Winkler works without complaint for Nanton despite the growing indignity of the work. Sometimes Wrinkler wonders whether this reality is a dream and he’ll one day wake up back in his bed beside Sandy.

One day in 1993 or 1994, Winkler enters Felix and Soma’s home while they’re not there, remembering his time there and the happiness of the small family. He thinks of Naaliyah and of the summer when she insisted on his help learning to walk long distances on her hands. Winkler looks at the bed Felix and Soma share, unmade, and Soma’s dresses hung neatly while Felix’s chef’s tunics lie crumpled on the floor.

One Sunday in December 1999, Winkler returns from a walk and finds a scientific paper about sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp on his windowsill. It’s written by Naaliyah, and Winkler finds it well thought-out even though it’s missing key elements. He’s surprised by how mature the paper shows Naaliyah has become. He learns that she finished secondary school in Barbados, works for the Caribbean Institute of Oceanography, and attends their satellite school on St. Vincent. When Winkler learns that Naaliyah often goes out on the water to collect samples, he recalls his earlier dream about her death. He sees her in the boat in March and realizes how much she has grown.

Winkler recalls seeing a group of deer while driving from Alaska to Ohio with Sandy. He remembers regretting not waking Sandy to see the deer but then wondering if perhaps the deer were ghosts of their former selves. As if to support this theory, he saw multiple dead deer by the road and was glad he hadn’t woken Sandy.

Naaliyah comes to see Winkler. She tells him that she wants to go to graduate school in the US and she’d like him to write a letter of recommendation. He doesn’t think a letter from him would have much influence but agrees. That night, he has the dream of Naaliyah drowning again.

Winkler goes to the post office and insists that Soma tell him where Naaliyah lives. He goes there, but she’s not home. Her boyfriend tells him that she’s at work. By the time he arrives at the institute, Naaliyah is already on the water. He waits all day for her to return and begs her to stop going out on the water, but Naaliyah insists that she must continue her collections.

He remains on St. Vincent that night, watching Naaliyah’s apartment. When she leaves early the next morning, he again asks her not to go out on the water. She insists that she must do her job. Winkler goes to the boat and sabotages it so that Naaliyah can’t use it that day. Then he returns to the inn and collects his things. Soma visits Winkler and demands to know why he’s acting this way. Winkler explains about his dream and how Naaliyah will drown. Winkler rents a room above the butcher shop across the street from Naaliyah’s apartment. He sets a chair before the window and watches her apartment.

Winkler approaches Naaliyah while she has lunch with an older man and learns that the man is her advisor, Dr. Meyer. Winkler again begs Naaliyah to stop going out on the water, explaining about his dream. She brushes him off. After a week, Soma comes to visit Winkler. She agrees to speak to Naaliyah, but Naaliyah won’t speak to her, convinced that they’re trying to keep her from the one thing she loves. Soma begins joining Winkler at night, watching over Naaliyah with him. Winkler sabotages Naaliyah’s boat again.

One night while Soma is sleeping, Winkler writes his recommendation letter for Naaliyah. He leaves it for Soma to make copies and mail it.

Soma comes late to the apartment and tells Winkler he can’t stop people from doing what they want. She encourages him to go to sleep. He dreams that a drowned Naaliyah tells him that knowing something will happen makes it happen. Then he dreams that Herman cuts his throat with the blade of his ice skates. As Winkler sleeps, Soma goes home, and Naaliyah’s boyfriend, Chici, leaves a plate of chicken on Winkler’s stairs.

On a Sunday, Winkler is watching Naaliyah as she takes the boat out to a small cove. She puts on a dive mask. Winkler feels the familiarity of the scene and realizes this is the moment he dreamed of. He begins to undress but is surprised when she lifts the cinderblock anchor since he sank it five nights ago. Like in the dream, the chain wraps around her ankle and pulls her into the water. Winkler is already in the water, worried that he’s too far away. He grows tired quickly, realizing too late that he should have practiced for this moment. When he finds her, she’s struggling with the chain. He takes two shots at lifting the cinderblock to loosen the chain. Naaliyah breaks free and floats upward. She’s unconscious. Winkler attempts CPR, worried that it’s too late. However, Naaliyah responds.

Naaliyah is treated and released from the hospital. Felix and Soma are grateful for Winkler’s intervention. A few days later, Soma asks him what he’ll do now. He says he’d like to get work on St. Vincent. He visits the library and begins to catch up on research on water and ocean life in the past 25 years. He decides to write a book about water. He outlines his thoughts in notebooks. At night, he sits with the butcher. He catches sight of Naaliyah from time to time. One night, Naaliyah takes Winkler out on a boat as she goes to collect eels for a study that one of her professors is doing on a photochemical they contain. Naaliyah tells Winkler she has been accepted to the University of Alaska in Anchorage with a full scholarship.

There is a party at the inn to celebrate Naaliyah’s acceptance to the University of Alaska. A few days later, the family gathers as Naaliyah prepares to leave. Felix gives her a puffy coat, and Winkler gives her a bottle of water from the lagoon so that she won’t forget where she came from. Naaliyah asks Winkler to visit her.

One night, Winkler tells the butcher that he left Ohio because he dreamed he’d cause his daughter to drown if he stayed. The butcher asks him if it isn’t possible that he changed his daughter’s fate the same way he changed Naaliyah’s fate. The butcher says it’s possible that Grace is still alive. Winkler is suddenly filled with hope, realizing for the first time that Sandy never confirmed that Grace had died.

Winkler arranges for his passport. He buys a suit and withdraws his savings from the bank. The butcher arranges for Winkler to spend his final night at the inn as a guest. The following day, Winkler visits Soma and Felix at their home. Soma gives him the watch he gave her shortly after he arrived on St. Vincent. Felix gives him meat pies for his journey. He takes the ferry across the channel.