That she asked about me more often than she admitted.
“Why didn’t she contact me herself?” I asked.
Dolly hesitated.
“She thought Grandpa told you she had come back.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Another lie created by silence.
Laura believed I had known and chosen not to see her.
I believed Laura had vanished.Birthday celebration ideas
For decades, both of us had been hurt by something that wasn’t true.
“Does she know you found Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She cried.”
I smiled sadly.
“That sounds familiar.”
Months passed before I received the first letter.
No return address.
My hands shook when I recognized the handwriting.
It had changed.
Of course it had.
But some shapes were still the same.
Especially the L.
I opened it slowly.
Laura didn’t ask for forgiveness.
She didn’t offer excuses.
She told me she had been sixteen, angry, frightened, and certain she knew more about life than everyone around her.
