The Photograph of a Newborn in a Yellow Knitted Hat

In the upper left corner, Paul had written a return address: 414 Elm Street, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

I untied the string and pulled the contents out into the yellow light of the bulb.

The first paper was a yellow carbon copy of a cashier’s check for twelve hundred dollars, drawn on the bank in New Kensington and made out to Rebecca Vance.

The second was a federal tax schedule from 2015 with a seven-digit phone number written across the top margin in soft pencil, followed by the words: Rebecca home.

I checked the date stamped on the cashier’s check stub.