I didn't tell my mother what Mr. Hale had said.
Not immediately.
I needed to hear it from her.
But first, I needed to understand what I was actually asking.
So I stayed in the archive room after Maya and Ethan left.
The box sat on the table.
Five names.
Four returned.
One missing.
I looked at the old photograph again.
My mother was standing near the middle.
She looked happy.
Normal.
Nothing about her face suggested that she was carrying some terrible secret.
I turned the photograph over.
There was something written underneath the date.
A sentence.
I hadn't noticed it before.
The fifth was not recorded among the survivors.
I frowned.
Survivors.
That word made my stomach twist.
I took a picture of it.
Then I put everything back exactly where we'd found it.
Except for
