He said he simply disliked finding things twice.

One weekend, the bag disappeared into a cupboard, empty.

I did not ask what changed.

I made room for his things and treated the act as something ordinary.

I had known him long enough to understand that ordinary could be a gift.

Remembering those things at the kitchen table did not tell me exactly why he hid Leo.

It stopped me from reducing his whole life to the bad judgment in his last months.

“You knew him then,” I said to Nora.