I reread it twice. Changed consistent with to presents strong evidence of. Changed recommend to advise. Sent it to Dr. Voss and Professor Pemberton with the enhanced scan attached.
Then I looked at the freesias.
White, with those pale green stems. My mother had kept them on the kitchen table whenever the florist on the corner had them in stock. Not a special-occasion flower. Just a Tuesday flower. Something she bought because she happened to walk past and thought, yes, today.
The memory had a specific texture to it—the particular kitchen light of our old house in the afternoons, the way the steam from whatever was on the stove would make the petals curl slightly at the edges by dinnertime. Small and vivid and eleven years gone.
The day had been productive. The provenance report was str
