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'She played with his buttons as he wrote each question in their little notebook and looked up each word in her Dutch. She would read what he wrote, and give her answer underneath. Then he would look up her speech. It took them several hours, more than a few tears, but they had enough, it seemed to him, to tell her story well...'

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'...he had a present for her. A small, trivial thing, that he had found the day before on his trip to the bookshop. A very tiny chain, and a tin pendant to put on the chain. It was very inexpensive, but had his name engraved upon the face of the pendant. She cried to see it, and he was again smothered in kisses as he placed it upon her neck.'

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'Shelly reached to move the box and the scraping of the wood on the attic storeroom floor chilled her. Her breath had been the only sound in her ears before, and the scraping made a low sound like a voice. She paused and turned to look back into the room from that corner. No one was inside the building and she knew it perfectly well, but the scrape on the floor made her think she was no longer alone in that room. She felt someone was watching beyond the middle shelf.'

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'There was laughter upstairs, and Shelly nearly broke her hand screaming back and pounding her fists on the floorboards. She lifted her head and opened her eyes when the laughter stopped and the attic door closed softly.'

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“Cigars? You went in there for those? What, are they like wine?” the officer asked.
Evan shook his head and pried the cigar-tin lid. It did not resist much and he was not surprised to see a ring with three large keys.

“This is what I went in there for,” Evan said quietly.

“So why are those keys so important?”
Evan looked at the man and gave him a simple answer.
“They open the past.”

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“She returned, Shelly,” Evan said and he walked to where she sat and offered his arms. “Papa tried to use the Waterbury, and she appeared. He tried again, and she appeared. He tried other cameras until it was winter and it snowed. She haunted him in every frame he exposed, until he lost his mind and refused to touch a camera.”

“She was dead. Haunting him in every camera he used. He tried to honor her with the Mourners’ Kaddish,” Sareta breathed. “He broke the plates, hoping to release her.”

“And he stopped working and began to die. She took his living from him but left him to suffer for two more years.”

“What had he done to her?” Shelly whined. She hid her face against his shoulder. Papa was said to speak to people who were not there. Evan understood now who he spoke to, and why.


Book Cover images, design: Serendipity Graphic Design by Kelly van der Staal, Den Haag, Netherlands.
www.kellyvanderstaal.nl
Caraliza is portrayed by: Maret Reutelingsperger