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There were few decorations, but one picture drew her attention It stood on an old sideboard whose veneer was peeling Tara reached for the frame to take a closer look at the picture, when her hand collided with Jay’s He’d reached for it, too

She aze

"I was thirteen in that picture"

Tara studied it A boy sat on the stoop of the ho behind him She looked tired and worn-out, but she smiled nevertheless

"We didn’t know it then, but she already had cancer when that picture was taken"

Instinctively, Tara closed her hand around Jay’s, squeezing it "I’ular doctor’s visits," he explained "Or they ht it earlier Butfood on the table She always put herself last She was a hard worker"

"And your dad, did he not help?"

"There was no work in the area At first he took out-of-town jobs and only came home on the weekends But I think in the end it was too hard on hiave up One day, he sent a letter with so else He said he’d failed as a father and a husband and couldn’t bear seeing us any hoe had to live He broke her heart"

Tara felt tears well up in her eyes and tried to push them back

"I did what I could After school I helped out at a bait and tackle store I gutted fish for a small cannery; I helped out at a dry dock I took whatever job they would give a teenager And at night, when my mother slept, I took my bike and went down to the harbor and watched the waves rock against the boats And I wished I’d been born into a different fah his hair "And I hatednot to beto be rich"

His pain broke her heart "It wasn’t your fault"

A sad shts, because every ti onto one and leaving this place for good"