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lost pieces of my past. Children grow so fast, one gets a sense of how short one’s life is, and how important each day is. If I lose that part of my past forever, my life will have been cut short. I don’t want that.”
    Jill thought again of her mother. Healthy in body at sixty-three, but not really alive in the present, helpless against an incendiary illness that had turned vast swathes of her past into ash.
    And now more of my own past is going up in smoke as I sit across from another person who doesn’t remember me. With this sobering thought, Jill got to her feet. She wanted to be alone. She wanted blackout sleep.
    “Thanks for coming by, Max. And explaining all this. I appreciate it.”
    “I had to, for me. And for you.” He took a step toward her, only two feet separating them. Max reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a worn envelope that he handed to her. “When I closed up my parents’ home in Sweden last year after my mother died, I found this.”
    Jill stared at the envelope. The postmark was fifteen years ago, from the Christmas after Max had disappeared from her life. She knew what the card inside was. And what it said. She had sent it.
    Echoes of the words she had written filled her head. “So your mother didn’t give it to you when it came?”
    “No, but she kept it. I found some photos also. Several of the buildings at St. John’s College. I contacted the administration and was directed to a very kind professor there who knew me, and you. Dr. Mary Millard. She told me about our class, and that we were a serious couple. I scanned the photos I found and emailed them to her. She and I exchanged several messages and she told me about the reunion.” Max inhaled. “She’s the one who suggested I should come and see you.”
    Jill could not find her voice. The relief she had felt at hearing why Max had not contacted her began to turn to despair. Her memories of their intimacy seemed fragile, and she realized that when they began to fade, there would be no one in the world to help restore them.
    She tried to smile. “I’m glad you took Dr. Millard’s advice. To come to the reunion. I love Dr. Millard. She was always great. Very insightful.”
    “She’s a wonderful woman. She said to tell you she hopes you’ll make some time to talk, that she missed you at the last reunion.”
    Jill leaned against the counter. “I’m not too big on reunions.”
    “She mentioned that, but said she hoped you would attend this one. Are you coming?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    Max stuck his hands in his pockets. “I have snapshots of you and me I left at the hotel. And one of you with your hair tied up in a band. I don’t know what you call that.”
    “A ponytail.”
    “Yes.” He grinned, and for a moment the old Max, his eyes warm and teasing, was standing in the room with Jill. “Yes. Ponytail. Olivia wears those. You may have sent the photos in letters, but I didn’t find any of those. Only the card.”
    “You must have been surprised when you read it.”
    “I was. After I contacted Dr. Millard, I was furious at my mother. Which is very sad because she’s gone and can’t explain why she acted as she did.” He stared at her intently. “The most urgent reason I came here tonight was to ask your forgiveness for abandoning you. You must have hated me.”
    “I could never hate you.” As soon as Jill said the words, she wished she could take them back, for her voice revealed too much of what she had once felt about him.
    Still felt , about the old Max.
    “I’m relieved to hear you say that.” He blew out a breath and smiled a familiar crooked smile. “Thank you.”
    “Why do you think your mother didn’t give you the letters?”
    Several moments passed. “I have no good answer for that. She had issues her entire life with depression. Constantly worried about the state of the world and my father’s safety. He traveled all over Europe for his career.”
    She frowned. When they were in