I nodded because I completely understood and then I looked over at her paper. The sketch was of a young girl being pushed on a swing and, aside from the drawings of my mother, it was the only image of hers that I had ever seen that wasn’t blown up to enormous proportions.

“That’s me.”

She nodded.

“How come you didn’t make me big?”

She smiled and then whispered so softly I couldn’t be sure that I heard correctly. “Because I already know you.”

That night I didn’t write a letter to my sister and it made me feel happy and sad and confused, so the next morning as Leah and I were eating waffles, all I wanted to think about was the maple syrup that drenched each bite.

“Can you say the alphabet backwards?”

“What?” I mumbled, enjoying the sweetness that filled my mouth.

“The alphabet. Can you say it backwards?”

I contemplated another bite but instead took a breath.

“Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A.”

Leah was quiet.

“That’s amazing, Franny. How do you do that so fast?”

“I see the alphabet. I see letters. In my head.”

My cheeks got warm and I felt like I had opened the front door without first asking who was there. I had spoken too easily and without thought and I wished that I could take it all back.

“You see them? In your head.”

I wondered if she was teasing me. But it was Leah. Leah with a silent H at the end of her name and she would never tease me.

“You are an incredible person, Franny. You see details that no one else notices.”

I drew circles in the maple syrup. “What was my mom like? I mean . . . from before?”

She lowered her mug of tea. “Therese has always been determined.”

“Were you good friends?”

“There is nothing I would not do for her. Nothing.”

“Why did she leave me with you?”

Leah looked down and then shifted in her seat. “It’s complicated, Franny. One day I will try and explain it to you.”

I mashed the leftover crumbs of my waffle into the syrup. I probably should have stopped asking questions, but it was almost like they were sitting inside my mouth and I had no choice but to spit them out. “What about your parents? What are they like?”

Up went the mug. “I don’t speak to them anymore.”

Was Leah like me? Did her parents leave her, too? I couldn’t look at her anymore so I looked down.