Mom stayed with her while I crossed the street carrying the shoebox and the old photographs.
Mr. Harrison answered after my second knock.
His eyes went straight to the box.
“Are you returning it?”
“Yes. And there’s something you need to see.”
He hesitated before allowing me inside.
His living room was neat, with framed family pictures covering one wall.
I recognized Anna immediately.
There she was as a teenager, laughing beside her mother. In another picture, she was an adult wearing a bright yellow sweater.
“She’s beautiful,” I said.
Mr. Harrison glanced at the photographs.
“She lives in another state now.”
“Do you speak?”
“Not much.”
I didn’t press him.
Instead, I placed the old Halloween pictures on his coffee table.
He picked up the one showing Anna onstage.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother kept it.”
He studied Anna’s ribbon.
“She told me they wouldn’t let her enter.”
