All the Colors of the Dark — Chapter 30

30

That evening she climbed the stairs to her attic bedroom.

On the wall was a series of spiderwebs Saint had built with ardent care.

The newspapers said he was likely an opportunist and that Misty was beautiful, like the others, and that was enough.

She pinned the poster to her bulletin board.

In the hallway she reached for the telephone and dialed the station. She did not need to look up the number.

Nix answered like he was the only one still there on a Saturday evening.

“I think I found something,” she said.

There was silence for a long time, just the crackle of the line as she sat on the floor with her knees pulled to her chest.

“I was in this store and—”

“You need to stop this now,” he said, and she could see him there alone,

as beaten as her.

“But you—”

“I mean it, Saint. For you this is over now. You go on, you be a kid again. You’ve already lost so much time.”

“You don’t understand. I saw this guy and then this poster and—”

She did not get to finish before the line cut.

Saint walked down the stairs, and through the window saw Norma on the porch, watching the street.

In the kitchen Saint found the bookshelf, and at the bottom in neat rows were the albums. She thumbed through them, stared at her mother for a while and looked into eyes like her own. She saw forgotten vacations, cities, and smiles.

Saint came to her school photographs, catalogued in an order where her progression was slow, her body clinging so resolutely to the protection of

childhood.

And there it was.

A little over a month before it happened.

She looked at herself and wondered how she could have ever smiled so wide.

Saint took the photograph from its housing and flipped it over.

She did not flinch when she saw the stamp.

ELI AARON PHOTOGRAPHY

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