He promised to study more carefully next time.

Walking out, Hannah noticed a father carrying his daughter on his shoulders and felt a brief pang for the things Sophie had not had.

Then she saw Ruth adjusting the crooked paper crown on Sophie’s head and Nathaniel holding the school program as carefully as a certificate.

Not every absence could be erased.

But new memories were possible, and Sophie’s life was filling with them.

Outside, the air smelled of wet leaves.