“But it means tomorrow can’t be perfect.”
Daniel leaned against the counter.
“When did you become smarter than all of us?”
“I’m not.”
Silas frowned.
“I’m just the only one who didn’t have a secret.”
Daniel looked away.
His eyes had become bright.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not answering you. For letting you believe your questions were the problem.”
Silas studied his father’s face.
“Did you think I would stop asking?”
“I hoped you would.”
“Why?”
“Because every time you asked about your mother, I remembered the worst year of my life.”
Silas’s expression changed.
Not into anger.
Into understanding.
“You thought if you didn’t talk about it, you wouldn’t remember.”
“Yes.”
“Did it work?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Silas reached across the counter and moved the folded dish towel toward him.
“Then you can stop trying.”
Daniel pressed his fingertips to the towel.
For the first time that day, he smiled.
Upstairs, Evelyn was preparing the guest room. When I checked in by phone that evening, Daniel told me she had opened her overnight bag and found three objects she did not remember packing: a silver picture frame, a spool of blue thread, and an old address book.
The address book contained Elena’s name.
Beside it, in Walter’s handwriting, was a post office box number.
The entry had been dated seven years earlier.
Daniel did not sleep much.
Neither did Elena.
The following morning, the library stood quiet beneath a sky washed pale by overnight rain.
The building was red brick with tall windows and stone steps darkened by moisture. Inside, the familiar scent of paper and polished wood softened every sound.
The community room had been arranged simply.
A round table.
Four chairs.
A box of tissues no one mentioned.
Daniel and Silas arrived first.
Silas carried his backpack even though there was no school. Inside it was the book Elena had helped him find—the story of a boy following a map through a forest.
He placed it on the table.
“Do I have to hug her?” he asked.
“No,” Daniel said.
“What if she wants to hug me?”
“She’ll ask.”
“What if I don’t know?”
“Then you can say you don’t know.”
Silas nodded.
Daniel sat beside him.
Ten minutes later, footsteps approached the hallway.
Elena appeared in the doorway.
For a moment, no one moved.
