For a moment I remembered the church, the silence, the look on Matthew’s face.

Then Mabel asked whether we could make dragon-shaped pancakes next week, and the memory took its rightful place in the past.

We were here, in the present, with flour on the counter and enough time to try again.

PART 21

On the anniversary of the day we had planned to marry, I took the box containing my wedding dress down from the closet shelf.

The cleaner had managed to remove most of the chocolate stain, although a faint shadow remained in the fabric near the hem.