The girls agreed to look, with permission to stop whenever they wanted.

Inside the box were recipe cards, a striped scarf, a packet of birthday candles, and an old notebook filled with little drawings.

Nora turned the pages slowly.

There were photographs tucked between the leaves: their mother with flour on her cheek, their mother holding a kite, their mother leaning over two babies in yellow knitted hats.

Violet found a shopping list and laughed because Amelia had written ICE CREAM three times.

“Was she worried she’d forget?” Violet asked.