My hands tremble slightly as I flip open the clasps on the suitcase. The blue silk lining holds a mess of loose photos. The first photo I see is of a girl from sailing club. I remember her well. She came for only one summer, the cousin of one of the cottagers. Her name was Kennedy. She had red hair that she always wore in a long braid, a Milky Way of freckles across both cheeks, and a deep, husky voice. When she laughed, she sounded like a seventy-year-old woman who smoked a pack a day.

The picture was taken on the sailing club dock, and there are boats lined up in the background. May has captured Kennedy mid-laugh. The girl was May’s first crush, and they shared one brief kiss behind the sailing club. May was so scared of getting caught that it was all she could manage.

In high school, May finally got up the courage to tell my mother that she thought she liked girls instead of boys. My mother told her it was a phase and to keep it in check so as not to shame the family. May never spoke to my mother again about being gay.

May had a handful of secret relationships, telling only me about them, but none of them lasted. She just never found a way to escape the sense that she was doing something wrong, that she was dishonoring the family. Love can’t grow from that kind of toxic soil. Even I know that.

I put the photo of Kennedy aside with the plan to tack it up in May’s room. She wasn’t able to bring it out of hiding, so I’ll do it for her.

The next photo I pull out is coincidentally of me and Ezra and that one kiss we had on the front verandah. I study the smooth, tanned skin of Ezra’s cheek and the way his dark hair curls up off his sweaty forehead.

Bringing it closer, I notice how our lips fit together just so and how I’d brought my hand to rest on his thigh, whereas his hands are clenched, one resting on the glider, the other at his side. Both of us have our eyes closed. The photo captures a raw innocence that magnifies the passage of time. Never again will I have so many firsts ahead of me. The children in the photo feel like strangers. I set it aside as well, to show Ezra when he comes back for a visit.