“I don’t think he did.

I won’t pretend he knew you the way he should have.”

Noah nodded.

He seemed to prefer an uncomfortable answer to an invented happy one.

“Could we see pictures of him when he was young?” Ethan asked.

Margaret smiled through tears.

“I have boxes of them.”

For the next half hour, they looked at pictures of William on bicycles, with dogs, beside aircraft, and once with a birthday cake that leaned so badly the icing had slid down one side.