“Then why are you holding a box?”
“To donate what somebody could use.”
I stared past her.
That room wasn’t a shrine.
At least I told myself it wasn’t.
But too many things remained exactly where they’d been.
“We’re not throwing anything away, Mom.”
Some stupid part of me had never stopped expecting footsteps in the hall.
Sophie lowered her voice.
“They’re not coming back for these.”
That hurt.
She knew it.
Her eyes filled immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked away.
Then reached for another box.
“Fine.”
She nodded.
“They’re not coming back for these.”
We started packing, but I stepped away to cook.
Dinner was still hours off, but I just needed an excuse to leave.
I couldn’t stay in that room any longer.
***
That afternoon, Sophie found the phone.
She came into the kitchen holding a black rectangle with a cracked corner.
“Mom?”
I couldn’t stay in that room any longer.
I looked up from the pile of old charging cables.
“Yes?”
“Wasn’t this Dad’s?”
My heart started pounding.
I took it from her.
It was Daniel’s old phone.
The one he’d told me he’d lost nearly a year before the fishing trip.
We’d searched the car.
The garage.
The couch.
Eventually bought him another.
“Where was this?”
“Bottom of the electronics bin,” Sophie said.
I flipped the phone over.
It was completely dead.
Sophie found a matching charger and plugged it in.
She sat beside it like she was waiting for a pulse.
“Mom, what if there are pictures?”
Sophie found a matching charger and plugged it in.
I froze for a second.
“Probably old ones.”
“What if there are videos? Voice notes..?”
I didn’t answer.
The phone finally powered on.
It automatically connected to our home Wi-Fi. A few minutes later, old photos began filling the gallery.
Then Sophie opened the gallery.
I couldn’t watch.
Not yet.
“What if there are videos? Voice notes..?”
So I left her at the table and went upstairs.
A few minutes later, I heard her running back.
“Mom…”
Something in her voice made me turn.
Sophie stood in my bedroom doorway holding the phone with both hands.
Her face had gone pale.
“What happened?”
She swallowed.
“There’s a video that synced from Dad’s account.”
My heart started racing.
“What kind of video?”
