“You were such a fun child. I want you to know that, since your parents aren’t around to tell you. So creative and feisty, always making up for your size with this big personality. You really were a joy to look after.”

I turn to her. I want more, suddenly. I’m ravenous for it. I want my identity proven all over again, explained by this woman I hardly know. Because no one has described my personality as big or feisty in too long. I want to be that girl again, I think, the one Anneliese so clearly loved.

“Do you have stories? Anything else you can show me?” I can feel my eyes brighten, my body tense in anticipation, like I’m hoping to sate some kind of famine state. And she notices, a drop of pity shadowing her eyes. But I don’t care. I want to find myself again.

“Of course. So many. We can get to know each other again, Sue. That would make me happy.” I nod along, giddy.

I stay for another two hours, listening to her spin the most domestic tales, boring to anyone but me. About my routine every day, the other children at my preschool, the cat we adopted who then ran away. The endless places to hide in the house upstate. The plays we’d put on—epic, nonsensical renditions of the movies I loved to watch. Our walks through the woods near the property to collect leaves and flowers, pasting them on a giant piece of cardboard we kept in my room. Bringing home a caterpillar and creating a little nest for it in a jar.

She also talks about her family and how her mother died when she was a kid, too, and how her dad, a cop, had been shot in the spine on duty, rendering him partially immobile. That her childhood had been difficult and she’d gained too much responsibility at too young an age.

Finally, as the afternoon begins to wane, she says, “I need to take the kids to the park or they’ll go crazy. How about if we meet next week? I’ll come to you.” I nod in agreement, and before I get up, she rubs my back in small circles. I lean my head back, ever so slightly, so she can touch my hair, run those fingers through it. And she does, as if she can read my mind.