THE GIRL WHO STAYED FOR ONLY ONE SUMMER
Chapter 13
Three weeks later, Ethan received a package.
No return address.
He opened it at the kitchen table.
Inside was a small envelope.
And a roll of developed photographs.
He immediately knew who had sent them.
Maya.
He looked through them one by one.
Walter repairing a boat.
June laughing behind the diner counter.
Lily riding her bicycle.
Claire standing in the hotel kitchen.
The Greyhaven lighthouse.
The harbor at sunrise.
Rain on Harbor Road.
Then Ethan.
Dozens of photographs.
Some he remembered.
Some he didn’t.
One showed him asleep on the couch.
Another showed him standing outside the hotel before sunrise.
Another showed him holding Lily’s broken bicycle.
Another showed him laughing.
He had almost forgotten what that looked like.
The final photograph was different.
It showed the porch at his house.
Empty.
Two chairs.
The ocean beyond them.
On the back, Maya had written:
I wanted to remember where I felt most at home.
Ethan sat quietly for a long time.
Then he placed the photograph beside the others.
