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Inside the box was simply a thin stack of papers tied with a ribbon On top of the tied packet lay a folded sheet of stationery She opened it, puzzled, and read the letter that was typed on her father's office letterhead

Our dearest Natalie,

This gift is from your mother and me, with all our love And it is from Nancy, who persuaded us that it hat you deserved to have

We will give you the suraduation--to make the search you want to make for your own past

The box contains all the documents we have They are very few, and your search, I'm afraid, will be a difficult and perhaps a painful one

Your job at ins, as you know, next Monday I need your help there, and I think you need the experience there to ful one But I have scheduled your work this suh each Thursday at noon So you will have three and a half days of each weekend to do whatever youaccount in your nahyou will find necessary The checkbook is also in the box

You will find, also, a set of keys I have leased a car for your use this summer as well

You are mature, sensitive, and responsible We wish you success in whatever journeys you make in these next three months But ant you to know, also, that what you find is not ihter, and our friend as well We love you for being Natalie, and that's all that ned the letter Natalie was crying by the tiain, took the bouquet of bright ribbons froed them

"Thank you," she said "Thank you"

Then she whispered also, "I'm sorry"

8

MUCH LATER, in her roohtened It hat she had wanted; now, holding the clues to her own past in her hands, she felt uncertain Paul had said, "Why bother? The present is enough Today is enough" And perhaps it was, after all Tallie's sculpture sat on her desk like a symbol of an unopened tomorrow--a commencement--surrounded by the simple, unobstructed lines of today There seemed none of yesterday's secrets in the bronze

But she wanted the yesterdays, though she feared them She felt as she had, years before, on her first day of school, clutching the security of herif she would like what she found in this neorld, not knowing if it would like her Still, she had finally pushed her mother's hand away, then, and whispered, "Go on I' roos that had filled her with fear and pain

She unfolded the first paper It was, as the letter had been, typed by her father on his office stationery

To Who (no, thought Natalie You have always called ate her natural parentage She is doing this with the per of myself and of herher with any helpful inforht be available to you

Sincerely,

Alden'T Ar, MD

The next paper was obviously older It was es were discolored It was dated July 10, 1960 Two ht Natalie

The letterhead was oddly familiar Harvey, Mac-Pherson, and Lyons, Attorneys at Law, Branford, Maine Hal MacPherson was her father's lawyer; the MacPhersons were family friends They lived two blocks away; Natalie had dated their son a couple of tie vacations What had the MacPhersons to do with her birth? It was disquieting, that all these years, perhaps, the MacPhersons had known so of Natalie that she herself had not known Not fair Of course, the fact that she had been adopted had never been a secret But the MacPhersons? She had always called him Uncle Hal, affectionately And he had known ry? Natalie thought Is this what Dad meant when he said the search would be a painful one? She san to read

HARVEY, MACPHERSON, AND LYONS,

ATTORNEYS AT LAW

30 Bay Street, Branford, Maine

102 Caldwell Avenue July 10, 1960

Branford, Maine

Dear Alden:

Please forgivein a personal matter But Pat, my wife, is a friend of Kay's, and she has been aware of the difficulties you and Kay have encountered in dealing with the state adoption agency

Although you and I don't know each other well, I am certainly fah the community services that you have contributed to Branford since you have coard to the process of adoption, I would like to offer my availability

I don't kno familiar you are with the process of so-called private adoptions This is a tered without going through the official procedures of an agency There are very often disadvantages to private adoptions; notably, the lack of extensive screening and encies provide