“I don’t know if this belongs to you,” Helen told Paige.

“And if it doesn’t, I apologize for adding another question.

But I remember the child drawing flowers in every book we owned.”

Paige opened it carefully.

On the last page, a childish hand had attempted the letter L.

She didn’t cry, as I expected.

She smiled and thanked Helen for remembering a frightened little girl as a person rather than an entry in a file.

Afterward Paige said the book mattered even if we could never prove it was hers.