Daniel’s mother walked into the room, dabbing at her eyes. All afternoon Charlotte had turned each item she touched over in her hands, the memories flooding back along with tears.

“How is work, love?” Charlotte sniffled onto another subject.

Kelly sighed. “It’s tough at the moment.”

“Can’t you stay home with Milly?”

Kelly’s preferred answer was easy. Reality was anything but. “No.”

“Could you take another job closer to home?”

Kelly tried to roll the rising tension from her shoulders. “My friend got me this one, and that took a while. Anyway, I won’t be there much longer, just until Daniel gets the rest of his advance.”

Milly walked into the room swinging a pair of tortoiseshell reading glasses in her fingers. “What should I do with these?”

Kelly stared at the thick lenses that no longer held a twinkle behind them. Milly placed the glasses in Kelly’s hand before withdrawing her phone from her pocket as she slid down the wall to the floor.

Charlotte rushed over to Milly with all the fluster of a startled hen. “Are you okay, beautiful?”

Milly looked up, her face bathed in the low light of her ever-present screen. “I know he’s already gone, but it feels like we’re packing him away, that’s all.”

Kelly couldn’t have put it better herself.

Charlotte stroked Milly’s hair. “How are you doing in school? I haven’t seen a report card for a while.”

Milly gripped the phone tighter, her thumbs now stiff hammers tapping at the screen. “Okay, I guess.”

Kelly could see it wasn’t. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen a report card either.

Hands on hips, Daniel stood in the doorway. “Well, this is it. Gramps didn’t have much, did he?”

Charlotte’s voice lowered to a whisper. “He never did.”

Daniel’s brow furrowed. “Gramps was a gambler, after all.”

“Was he?” Charlotte sank onto the recliner, her hand covering her mouth. “So that’s what he meant when he said he’d beaten something that had beaten him.” She frowned as the tears came back. “How did you know? And why would he tell you but not me?”

“He didn’t, but a photo in his album shows him tearing up a betting slip. I thought you must have known.”

“I never saw that photo, and he never showed me his album.”

“I guess he didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“I guess not. That was so like him.” Her eyes clouded again. “It was special that he left that camera to you. May I ask what was in the letter?”

Kelly snapped a look at Daniel. “What letter?”

Daniel stared at his feet. “There was a letter with the camera.”

Kelly hoped he would fill the silence with more, but Daniel moved past her and grabbed the television. Then he left the room.