For several seconds, nobody moved.<\/p>\n
Anna stood beside my kitchen table with Carol\u2019s final letter in her hand, while Rebecca stared at her as though one more impossible detail might finally break whatever remained of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still have the photograph?\u201d Rebecca asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Pittsburgh?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna nodded.<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked toward the windows. Morning sunlight had begun touching the tops of the trees beyond the backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou drove four hours to get here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the picture is four hours away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
My daughter pressed both palms against the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly does it show?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little girl standing beside Carol.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow old?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe four. Maybe five.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you thought she was me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca pointed toward herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I was six weeks old when Grandma gave it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo either someone had a time machine, or that girl wasn't me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she look like me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough that Ruth knew I would notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
A silence followed.<\/p>\n
That sentence mattered.<\/p>\n
My mother had not simply handed Anna a random photograph.<\/p>\n
She had wanted a reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say when she gave it to you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Anna looked toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me I needed to understand that some children belonged in certain families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca\u2019s expression hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat looking backward would only hurt everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she identify the girl?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018You know who she is.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca gave a disbelieving laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tried reconstructing my mother at that time.<\/p>\n
Rebecca six weeks old.<\/p>\n
Carol and I barely sleeping.<\/p>\n
Anna recovering from childbirth and loss.<\/p>\n
Ruth moving between all our lives as though she alone understood the correct arrangement.<\/p>\n
Why give Anna a photograph of another child?<\/p>\n
What could she gain?<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you show it to your mother?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cLouise?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna\u2019s eyes shifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when things became stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca pulled out a chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cSit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna did.<\/p>\n
I sat across from her.<\/p>\n
Rebecca remained standing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother saw the photograph and nearly fainted.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cold sensation moved across my shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe recognized the girl?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe started crying. Then she took the photograph from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou let her keep it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe gave it back the next morning and told me never to show it to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said if Ruth knew I still had it, Ruth might come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandma was one woman, not the mafia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn't know Ruth at forty-five.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew her at seventy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did I,\u201d I said quietly. \u201cShe softened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca gave me a look.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair.<\/p>\n
Anna folded Carol\u2019s letter carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, I assumed the girl must have been some relative of Walter\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas she?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you ever ask Louise again?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe refused.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil she died?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca noticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a week before she died, she tried to tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse quickened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said Ruth had always been terrified of resemblance.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cResemblance?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the word.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween who?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe became confused before she could explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she mention the girl?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said the girl was \u2018the first one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
The first one.<\/p>\n
The phrase entered the room like another person.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first what?\u201d Rebecca asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAdoption?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandchild?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca paced toward the sink.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Grandma gives you a picture of a child who looks like me, your mother recognizes her, calls her \u2018the first one,\u2019 and everyone expects you to act normal?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat describes most of my twenties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite everything, Rebecca almost smiled.<\/p>\n
Then she stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have a copy on your phone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never photographed it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI barely look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy keep it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna answered without hesitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Ruth wanted me frightened enough to destroy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca considered that.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward Carol\u2019s hidden adoption file.<\/p>\n
Maybe the answer was already somewhere in the documents.<\/p>\n
We searched again.<\/p>\n
Every photograph.<\/p>\n
Every receipt.<\/p>\n
Every handwritten note.<\/p>\n
Nothing showed an older girl.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered the boxes at my mother\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
Not the attic box I had already opened.<\/p>\n
There were albums downstairs.<\/p>\n
Old family photographs.<\/p>\n
My mother had labeled nearly every picture.<\/p>\n
Maybe this child appeared somewhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to Ruth\u2019s house,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked at the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou haven't slept.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither have you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm younger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRude.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI'll come.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Rebecca needs sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn't talking about Rebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked at me.<\/p>\n
There it was again.<\/p>\n
The old habit of arguing as though four decades had never happened.<\/p>\n
Rebecca watched both of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, this is going to be exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna and I looked toward her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou two.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no \u2018you two.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca raised one eyebrow.<\/p>\n
Anna suddenly became interested in the table.<\/p>\n
My daughter shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took my keys.<\/p>\n
Rebecca grabbed hers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cComing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just told me I need sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI changed my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna reached for her coat.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did I.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within twenty minutes, the three of us were driving to the house where I grew up.<\/p>\n
The place looked smaller than I remembered from childhood.<\/p>\n
They always do.<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s flowerbeds had become weeds.<\/p>\n
Paint peeled from one porch railing.<\/p>\n
Inside, the air carried that closed-house smell of dust and wood.<\/p>\n
Rebecca stopped in the entryway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven't been here since Grandma died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither have I much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna stood just behind us.<\/p>\n
She looked pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the house?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere Ruth lived?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked toward the staircase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here once.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter you left.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI came looking for your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds dangerous in hindsight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth wasn't home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father.<\/p>\n
I stared at Anna.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou met Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly briefly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I learned I was pregnant. Before I went to your apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mind scrambled to rearrange the timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he looked terrified the moment I said my surname.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
Mercer.<\/p>\n
He knew Louise.<\/p>\n
Maybe he understood immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he ask about your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Louise was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked toward the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me I should leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father told you to leave?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said Ruth would be back soon and it would be better if she didn\u2019t see me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sounded like fear, not hostility.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he know you were pregnant?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was barely showing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo maybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't think he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked between us.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he mention Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt another loss.<\/p>\n
My father had stood within feet of Anna, the daughter of Louise, carrying my child, and none of us understood enough to change what happened next.<\/p>\n
We entered the living room.<\/p>\n
Family albums filled two lower shelves beside the fireplace.<\/p>\n
My mother organized them by decade.<\/p>\n
I pulled out the albums from the late seventies and early eighties.<\/p>\n
Rebecca sat on the floor.<\/p>\n
Anna beside her.<\/p>\n
We began turning pages.<\/p>\n
Christmas.<\/p>\n
Birthdays.<\/p>\n
Vacations.<\/p>\n
My father holding fish beside a lake.<\/p>\n
My mother standing stiffly at church picnics.<\/p>\n
Me graduating college.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Then Rebecca stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her finger rested on a photograph from 1980.<\/p>\n
A church fundraiser.<\/p>\n
I stood beside my father.<\/p>\n
My mother stood several people away.<\/p>\n
In the background was a young girl.<\/p>\n
Maybe four.<\/p>\n
Dark hair.<\/p>\n
Green eyes.<\/p>\n
My breath caught.<\/p>\n
Anna leaned closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're sure?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared at the girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe does look like me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not identical.<\/p>\n
But enough.<\/p>\n
The eyes.<\/p>\n
The cheeks.<\/p>\n
Something around the mouth.<\/p>\n
I removed the photograph carefully.<\/p>\n
Nothing was written on the back except the date.<\/p>\n
September 1980.<\/p>\n
Rebecca had not been born for more than four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is she?\u201d Rebecca asked.<\/p>\n
I looked at the people around her.<\/p>\n
Church members.<\/p>\n
Neighbors.<\/p>\n
One woman I recognized.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harwell.<\/p>\n
She had run the church nursery for decades.<\/p>\n
Still alive, as far as I knew.<\/p>\n
Maybe ninety.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone might know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca touched another photograph on the same page.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n
Different event.<\/p>\n
Christmas pageant.<\/p>\n
Same girl.<\/p>\n
This time Carol was in the picture.<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
Carol stood beside a group of children.<\/p>\n
She would have been twenty-one.<\/p>\n
Years before she met me.<\/p>\n
The girl stood directly in front of her.<\/p>\n
Anna whispered, \u201cCarol knew her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom knew this child before she knew Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impossibility shifted.<\/p>\n
This was no longer only Ruth\u2019s secret.<\/p>\n
Carol was involved years before Anna became pregnant.<\/p>\n
Rebecca turned another page.<\/p>\n
There.<\/p>\n
The girl again.<\/p>\n
Birthday party.<\/p>\n
Five candles on a cake.<\/p>\n
The child sat beside Ruth.<\/p>\n
My mother\u2019s hand rested on her shoulder.<\/p>\n
On the back, my mother had written:<\/p>\n
Emily \u2014 five today.<\/p>\n
A name.<\/p>\n
Finally.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily,\u201d Rebecca whispered.<\/p>\n
Anna turned pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother said that name once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe night she saw the photograph Ruth gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca leaned closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked, \u2018Where did Ruth get Emily?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart started pounding.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Louise knew her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was she?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
We searched the album for more.<\/p>\n
Emily appeared repeatedly for almost two years.<\/p>\n
Then vanished.<\/p>\n
No funeral.<\/p>\n
No explanation.<\/p>\n
Just gone.<\/p>\n
I pulled out the next album.<\/p>\n
1982.<\/p>\n
No Emily.<\/p>\n
1983.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
1984.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
It was as though she stopped existing.<\/p>\n
Rebecca stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould she have moved?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith who?\u201d<\/p>\n
I checked the photographs again.<\/p>\n
Emily was almost always near my mother.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Carol.<\/p>\n
Never beside a man who looked like a father.<\/p>\n
Never beside a woman who obviously looked like a mother.<\/p>\n
Anna touched the image.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has Louise\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had known Louise only casually decades earlier.<\/p>\n
But memory supplied enough.<\/p>\n
Maybe.<\/p>\n
Maybe not.<\/p>\n
Rebecca asked, \u201cCould Emily be related to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no younger sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about an older sister with a child?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I suddenly remembered something.<\/p>\n
\u201cLouise had been pregnant before Anna.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna turned sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father mentioned something once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago. I didn\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
I searched memory.<\/p>\n
He and I had been repairing a fence.<\/p>\n
Some story about high school.<\/p>\n
Louise.<\/p>\n
A baby.<\/p>\n
I had assumed he meant Daniel.<\/p>\n
But maybe not.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said Louise had \u2018lost another one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna went white.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother had two pregnancies?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca pointed to Emily.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould she be Louise\u2019s daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she was born in 1975, Louise would have been\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-nine,\u201d Anna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I lived with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou'd remember your mother being pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Rebecca said, \u201cUnless Louise wasn't the mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
We all looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe \u2018the first one\u2019 doesn't mean Louise's first child.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed toward Carol.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe Mom's.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Anna looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCarol told me she could never have children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s different from never being pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca\u2019s face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me she had surgery when she was nineteen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat surgery?\u201d<\/p>\n
I realized I had never asked for details.<\/p>\n
She said there had been complications.<\/p>\n
That pregnancy would be impossible afterward.<\/p>\n
I assumed cysts.<\/p>\n
Maybe infection.<\/p>\n
Something medical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if she was pregnant?\u201d Rebecca whispered.<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt sixteen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom would have been sixteen or seventeen when Emily was born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked at the photograph of Carol and Emily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey look alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
Now that she said it, I saw it.<\/p>\n
The chin.<\/p>\n
The shape of the eyebrows.<\/p>\n
Not Rebecca\u2019s resemblance.<\/p>\n
Carol\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Rebecca covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my God.\u201d<\/p>\n
I immediately resisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't know anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Rebecca said. \u201cWe don't.\u201d<\/p>\n
She turned another album page.<\/p>\n
There was one final photograph.<\/p>\n
Carol kneeling beside Emily.<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s arms wrapped around her neck.<\/p>\n
Someone had written on the border in blue ink.<\/p>\n
Mama C.<\/p>\n
Rebecca froze.<\/p>\n
I took the picture.<\/p>\n
The handwriting was not Ruth\u2019s.<\/p>\n
It looked like a child's.<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Anna whispered, \u201cCarol had a daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
My daughter sat down slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't know that yet,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Rebecca stared at Carol\u2019s younger face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who was she?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
My phone rang.<\/p>\n
Elaine.<\/p>\n
Marjorie\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n
I almost ignored it.<\/p>\n
Then I answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found something else in Mom's journals.\u201d<\/p>\n
We all became still.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn entry from 1981.\u201d<\/p>\n
My grip tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cRead it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paper rustled.<\/p>\n
Elaine spoke carefully.<\/p>\n
June 6, 1981.<\/p>\n
Ruth brought Carol again.<\/p>\n
Carol asking about Emily.<\/p>\n
Ruth says placement is permanent.<\/p>\n
Carol insists she was promised visits.<\/p>\n
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.<\/p>\n
Rebecca whispered, \u201cPlacement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elaine continued.<\/p>\n
Carol begged for address.<\/p>\n
Ruth refused.<\/p>\n
Said girl needs to forget who her real mother is.<\/p>\n
Rebecca sat completely motionless.<\/p>\n
Anna closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
I could barely speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cElaine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes the journal say who Emily\u2019s mother was?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a pause.<\/p>\n
Then Elaine answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarol.\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds, nobody moved. Anna stood beside my kitchen table with Carol\u2019s final letter in her hand, while Rebecca stared at her as though one more impossible detail might … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24263,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24228\/revisions\/24263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}