Part 5
After dinner, Lily wandered upstairs while the adults talked.
One door stood slightly open.
She pushed it.
The room beyond was painted dark blue.
Tiny stars covered the ceiling.
There was a telescope by the window.
Children’s astronomy books lined the shelves.
On the bed sat a dusty teddy bear wearing a small astronaut shirt.
Lily crossed the room slowly.
She picked up the bear.
“The astronaut bear always comes home,” she murmured. “Even when he gets scared in space.”
Dominic had reached the doorway.
His knees nearly gave way.
He had invented those exact words for Anna before a childhood surgery.
No one else had ever heard them.
“Lily.”
She turned.
“Was this your daughter’s room?”
Dominic could not answer.
Eleanor appeared behind him.
For several seconds, none of them spoke.
Then Eleanor whispered, “Come downstairs.”
She placed a faded piece of yellow fabric on Dominic’s kitchen table.
Two tiny embroidered letters remained visible in one corner.
A.M.
Dominic sat motionless.
“Where did you get this?”
“Three years ago.”
His hands curled against the table.
“Tell me.”
Eleanor began crying before she spoke.
“I was homeless then. I had lost my apartment after my husband died, and I was sleeping wherever I could. The morning after that terrible storm, I was walking near the river because the shelter had closed for the day.”
She wiped her face.
“I saw something tangled near the reeds.”
Dominic stared at her.
“I thought it was a coat. Then it moved.”
His chair scraped backward.
“She was barely breathing. Her dress was torn. She had a deep cut on her leg and could not tell me her name.”
“You found Anna.”
“I found a dying child.”
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“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“I did call for help. I took her to an emergency clinic. She had no identification. I had no money. There was confusion about where she would go afterward, and she panicked whenever strangers tried to separate us.”
