The center of town was a big old medieval square with an ancient church right in the middle of it. The town hall was on the edge of the square. I told the old mustachioed guy at reception what I was looking for and he pointed across the square. He had to push his glasses down off his forehead to look at me. Blue eyes magnified and focused. He said that records were kept in the library, which was on the other side of the church. The old guy looked at his watch and shook his head; chances were the library was already closed for lunch.

But it wasn’t quite closed. I got in the door. A young woman wearing a floral print dress was turning over the sign at the front desk, from open to closed. I made it to the counter a split second before the sign flipped and put my hand next to it. Which made her look up. I gave a winning American smile. The librarian was in her twenties, strawberry-blonde hair, long nose, high cheekbones, slim.

I said, “You’re closing for lunch.”

“Yes, monsieur.”

“Can I bother you for half a minute?” I smiled.

“You can bother me for half a minute.” She smiled back.

So I told her about my mother and how she had spent summers with family in town. I asked the librarian where I could look if I wanted to find traces that her family might have left.

“Your family.”

“Excuse me?”

“You said you wanted to find traces of your mother’s family, but it’s your family as well.”

Which was true, and maybe a better way of putting it. The librarian asked me to write down my mother’s name and date of birth. She told me to stop by in the afternoon, say five. She said she’d see what she could dig up. But there were no guarantees. Some traces remained over time, others got wiped away. Depended on a lot of things.

I wrote the name down, Delphine Vaugeois, and the date of birth. Then I thanked the librarian and walked out.

Five hours. Enough time to have lunch, check out the town, take a walk, stop by the library, and then get the late train out. Maybe there was a sleeper. I was headed south. Spain or Portugal and the beach. Figured I’d stay there for a month or a year, or however long it took to get bored of the beach. For the moment I was thinking about food and more coffee. Otherwise I felt good.