June is sitting at the kitchen table with a man I don’t recognize. They both have glasses of wine, and June is showing him some newspaper clippings in a scrapbook. There’s a new kind of intensity about June. She wants something from this man; I can feel it.

I zoom in, and the man looks away from June and into the space where I am. Like he senses me there. His eyes, they tell me who he is. Ezra—West’s son. Memories of him suddenly flood me. He, June, and I spent a lot of time together on this island. We used to play hide-and-seek, have diving contests, and play epic games of Monopoly. I can’t for the life of me remember the last time I saw him.

“So let me understand this,” Ezra says to June. “You had no idea about the search for your father, about his disappearance?”

She gives an exaggerated shrug. “My mother told us they had an argument and then he ran off in the middle of the night. All her life she maintained that our father abandoned us.”

A bitter-sounding chuckle escapes Ezra. “Funny, those are the same words my mom uses about my dad—‘abandoned us.’ ”

“So West disappeared as well?”

Ezra gives his head a shake. “He disappeared ten days after your own dad disappeared.” This bit of news surprises me. I actually remember how much West loved Ezra and this lake, and I can’t imagine any reason that would make him leave either of them.

“And he hasn’t been back since?” June asks, and Ezra shakes his head. “Like, you haven’t even heard from him?”

“Nope. No sign of him in thirty years.”

“My god, Ezra. I’m so sorry. I had no idea at all about any of this.” She taps the scrapbook with one finger. “This is the first I’m hearing about any of the things that went on back then, and I feel like my whole world is turning upside down.”

I move in to have a look at the open scrapbook and see that it’s a collection of articles about my father disappearing. I try to remember the time around them, to call forth some memories, but strangely, nothing comes up.

“So,” June says, leaning in even closer to Ezra, “just let me get this timeline right. My father disappeared”—she air-quotes the last three words—“there was a search, and your father was called in for questioning about it, since he was our caretaker and here all the time. Then he went missing just over a week after my father did?” Ezra gives a slow nod, and there’s hesitancy in his expression. June notices it too. “What aren’t you telling me?”