“I’ll put the kettle on. Would you like a tea or coffee?” Given it was too early for a gin and tonic, Karen planned on nursing her disappointment with a cup of Earl Grey.

“Chai would be lovely.”

Karen was almost at the door when Alice said, “Mom, where are our baby photos?”

An old frustration returned. Karen prided herself on being organized. Neat and tidy was her mantra, along with OHIO—only handle items once. But Alice and Peter had the “inability to file” gene and consequently they were always losing things and asking her where they were.

“They’re where they’ve always been. Our favorites are in the pink album and you’re holding the others in your hand.”

“But the earliest ones here are labelled ten weeks. Where are the newborn ones?”

“They’ll be there somewhere.”

“Except I’ve been through them all and they’re not here.”

“Perhaps they got separated the last time you looked at them. That was probably the end of Senior Year when you needed a baby photo for graduation. You’re not the best at putting things back in their rightful place, darling.”

“But it just seems a bit weird that all of them are missing.”

“Not really. Back then film was expensive and I think we only had twelve photos. They were out of focus and I probably threw them out.”

Alice stared at her aghast. “Mom!”

“There’s no point keeping fuzzy photos.”

“I guess not. Oh!” Her eyes lit up. “Twins are always big news so the Gazette would have taken photos of us in the hospital, right? I wonder if the files are still around.”

Karen’s hand tightened on the door frame. “I doubt they archive baby photos. Anyway, there was a fire at The Gazette a year after you were born and they lost a lot of negatives. To be honest, Alice, that photo you’re holding is my favorite. Before then, we’d been too worried about you to take photos, but you’d finally gained weight and smiled. I was so happy, I shocked your father by paying for a studio portrait.”

Alice smiled dreamily at a photo of her and Libby in matching smocked gowns and matching gummy smiles, gazing up at the person behind the camera. “I know I was small but we were irresistibly cute. If we were babies today, you’d be bombarding Instagram with us.”

Karen smiled weakly and left Alice looking at photos. Instead of returning to the kitchen, she walked directly to the dining room. With a shaking hand, she splashed brandy into a wine glass and gulped it down fast, welcoming the fiery burn that dominated the tangled mess of emotions rising fast from the past and threatening to choke her.