“So we’re going to save them for him.” Shane clapped his hands together like a coach about to describe a winning play. “I’ve spent weeks going through the piles and boxed photos in the attic. Mother was halfway through organizing them when she left us.” Shane took in another breath. “So they’re all in one place, but they’re mixed up. Because Mother and Dad both grew up in Richmond, many of the photos overlap. I’m not sure which ones are his and which are hers. But I don’t think it much matters.”

“No,” Colleen said. “I don’t think it does. They were together since they were—what? Thirteen years old?” Colleen ran her fingers over the pile of photos. “How did you choose these from all the boxes and envelopes in the attic? This is a labor of love.” She looked at him. “You’re a good son.”

He shrugged. “He’s a better dad.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “He is.”

Colleen sorted through the images that had been so carefully dated and organized while Hallie watched her, not touching any of them but gripping her coffee cup with both hands. A small clip had been attached to each photo with a scrap of paper that told the name of the other person in the photo and the date.

Shane spoke up. “So what I did was choose the ones with him in the picture.”

“But if a memory is gone,” Hallie said, “how will a photo help? If it’s gone it’s gone.”

Colleen chose a labeled photo: Aunt Rosalind, 1979. “How did you know all the dates and names?”

“Sometimes I would casually ask Dad, but Mother mostly had them in boxes by year and I just figured out the rest myself. If I didn’t know the information”—Shane lifted the glassine envelope from the table—“I didn’t include it. I’ve chosen twenty photos for the book, and that’s where we come in.” Shane said this with a huge smile, the lopsided one that convinced all the girls to believe anything he said.

“We come in?” Colleen asked.

“You two are going to work together.” He paused for the full effect, but neither sister reacted. “You’re going to choose a labeled photo and then interview the other person in that photo. Of course there are a few you can’t do that with—like our grandparents who are gone—but mostly you can. You can visit or Skype or just call, but you will show or describe the photo to the other person and ask them to tell you a story about the day depicted in the photo.”

“Brilliant,” Hallie said.