For the first time that day, I believed someone in authority understood the weight Noah had been carrying.

Then the judge asked a simple question: “Mrs.

Vance, how did your son come to have this camera?” And I remembered the birthday party where everything had begun.

PART 5

My father, Robert Ellis, was a quiet man who repaired cameras long after everyone else had moved to phones.

Two years earlier, he gave Noah a silver digital camera for his birthday.

“A picture can remind you of something your memory drops,” he told him.