He kept it in the bottom drawer beside old batteries, takeout menus, and pens that mostly didn’t work.
It showed a beach in Hawaii.
I found Dad at the kitchen table with the photograph again.
The colors had faded enough that the ocean looked gray. Palm trees leaned over one corner, and several tiny people stood near a cooler on the left side of the picture.
Dad was turning it over in his hands.
« What’s it like there? » I asked.
He looked up.
« The rain is warm. You can smell the ocean before you see it. »
Continue on the next page:
