"Thank you, Tommy."
The stonemason came after the guests had gone. That was the part Carter had asked for, that it be done the same day, while he was there. He stood with Lucas and Elena in the wind and watched the man work, carefully, with a small diamond wheel and a respirator, filling and grinding and polishing until the name was gone and the granite above Mike Chardi's name was smooth and black and shining, and you couldn't have said, unless you knew, that anything had ever been written there.
"You could've left it," Lucas said. "Part of you did go down with that ship."
"Part of me did," his father said. "But that part's not on the wall. It never was." He nodded at the name below the smooth place. "That's the one that belongs there."
When the stonemason had packed his tools and gone, Carter stepped forward and put his hand flat on the granite, on the letters of Michael Chardi's name, the way the hand had once been laid flat against his chest in the dark. He held it there for a long time. Lucas came up beside him, and after a moment, put his own hand over it.
Elena stood a little way back, with her silver camera, and for once did not take a picture.
"So what do I call you now?" Lucas asked, when they finally turned to go. "Commander? Sam? I'm a midshipman. I'm pretty sure there are rules."
His father thought about it. The wind snapped the flags overhead. Out on the Chesapeake, a grey ship was standing out to sea, bound for somewhere.
"Same thing you called me at the wedding," he said. "When you dropped the buoy."
Lucas laughed, wetly, and wiped his face with the back of his hand.
Then, because he was a midshipman of the United States Navy now, and because some things had been waiting nineteen years and should not have to wait any longer, he stepped back, and came to attention on the cold bright grass in front of the wall, and raised his hand in salute to his father. His father's hand came up to meet it. Steady, this time. No trembling at all.
"Okay, Dad," Lucas said. "Come on. You've still got a lot to teach me."