The thought of Paul hung in the freezing air between us.

I pulled my coat collar tighter around my neck against the wind.

“What kind of letters did you find, Lily?”

“They were in a shoebox at the back of my mother’s closet,” Lily said.

She unwound the red ribbon and pulled it perfectly flat across her denim knee.

“He sent us money every single month.”

I asked her if she had read the pages herself.

“Most of them just ask how I’m doing in school,” Lily said.