‘There’s magic on this island,’ said Gran as I stepped off the boat.

Husselbee cleared his throat, rapped on the glass, and told the woman in the green polo shirt he had murdered a man.

Simply by being here it was as if I had claimed kin with each and every one of these people. As if I could, just by looking, share, and partake in their histories, hopes, and individual despair.

Mother and Daughter had repeated this routine every school day since Jessie was five years old but today was the day Jessie started “Big School” as her mother embarrassingly insisted on telling everyone they had met for the past three months.

He looked into her eyes. “Somehow, I feel as if this concert was more important than any of my other performances.”

For thirty generations his family had ruled these lands. In the view of the Council of Vicars, the esteemed priests of the Church of the Edd, he’d eclipsed all predecessors in seventy years as Sovereign. But who would follow him?