Alice nodded enthusiastically, already peppering me with questions about what we might see and do.

I answered each one, making mental notes for the trip that was fast becoming less hypothetical in my mind.

By the time we got home, night had fallen.

The house looked different somehow—emptier, despite the fact that we’d removed only a small fraction of its contents.

Perhaps I was simply seeing it through new eyes, recognizing it not as the sanctuary I’d clung to, but as just a structure.

One that held memories, certainly, but not the essence of those memories.