Judith had her eyes on the mural, but I thought she wasn’t really seeing it. She was lost in her memories. “Well,” she said, “I knew the best place for me to disappear was New York City, so I went there as Judith Shipley, and—” She suddenly laughed and looked at me. “Want to hear how I got that name?” she asked.

“Yes!” I smiled, more at the enthusiasm in her face than the question. I thought I could see the younger woman—Anna—in her face when she laughed.

“Well … you must know from the journal that I had a baby, right?”

I nodded. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.”

“Yes, it was a hard—”

“Was that your daughter Debra?” Gloria interrupted.

“No, no,” Judith said. “Debra was born much later. No, that baby was … not conceived in love, shall we say. And my labor seemed to go on forever. And I was in Jesse’s aunt’s room, in her bed—”

“Aunt Jewel,” I said.

“Yes, that’s right!” She seemed delighted to be reminded of the name. “Aunt Jewel. Saint Jewel, I came to think of her. What I would have done without that woman, I don’t know.” She waved a hand through the air, brushing away the thought. “Anyhow, I knew I’d be leaving soon after the baby was born and I had to think of a new name for myself. Aunt Jewel had a bookshelf in her room, and the whole time I was in labor, I could see those books. And there was one by a Judith Somebody, and the one next to it was by a Somebody Shipley. And I just took those names and threw them together, and that’s who I’ve been ever since.”

Gloria’s mouth hung open. “I’ve known you eight years and you never said a word about any of this!” she said. I couldn’t tell if she looked more shocked or hurt.

“Because it’s ancient history,” Judith said. “It’s as though it happened to someone else. I made peace with all of it long ago. You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future.”

“So how did you and Jesse reconnect?” Oliver gently reminded her of the original question.