“Stop resisting and stay still, and you will not be hurt.” “You’re insane,” he panted.

“No,” I said.

“I’m calm.

There’s a difference.”

And then his eyes found the small side table by the door, and the framed photograph standing on it, the one my mother had given me months before and I had never gotten around to putting away.

It showed a younger version of me in a sharp Coast Guard service uniform, standing with the officers of my unit at a ceremony, another life ago.

Gavin went very still, staring at it.