For a moment, I felt as though I had walked into an old photograph.
Then I saw the birds.
Three small blue birds painted above the window.
One had a crooked wing.
I approached slowly and touched the wall beneath them.
“How?”
Ethan came to stand beside me.
“I used the photographs you showed me. I searched through everything you had, including those old videos you recorded when you were a teenager.”
I turned toward him.
“You watched all those videos?”
“More than once.”
I laughed weakly.
“Some of them are terrible.”
“You once spent eleven minutes explaining why your stuffed rabbit deserved its own bedroom.”
“It was an important issue.”
“Apparently.”
I smiled, then turned back toward the birds.
“The third one was always my favorite.”
“I know.”
I traced the crooked wing with my fingertip.
“How did you find someone who could paint them like this?”
“I found a restoration artist who specializes in reproducing old decorative details. I showed her the pictures and asked her not to improve anything.”
