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her.
    Grandma Hadden’s eyes seemed to look inward. “Small wedding…our garden.” She rubbed the photo with the tip of her index finger.
    Amy encouraged her. “Yes. You lived in Beaverdale then.”
    “Beaverdale…by the bridge.”
    Amy grew hopeful. If her grandmother could remember her daughter’s wedding, maybe she could remember her daughter giving birth, just six months later. “That’s right! We had to cross the bridge to get to your house.” Amy pulled a baby photo of herself from her purse and slipped it into the elder woman’s other hand. “Sharalynn had a baby girl.”
    Her grandmother inspected the second photo, her face brightening once more. “My pretty--“ she twisted in her chair. “Can’t remember...”
    Amy swallowed the lump in her throat. It was so hard to hear those words. Her grandmother had been there for her, always. When Amy’s parents were killed, Grams had pulled Amy into her arms and taken her home to live with her and Gramps. She had encouraged Amy to go on to university, telling her: “You’ve been drawing and designing buildings since you were a little girl. This is your chance to go to university and learn to do it for real. Lord knows, you’ve got the brains.” When Amy graduated with a degree in Architecture, her grandmother was there with an armload of roses. “Now, my dear, you can change the world, literally!”
    Leaning forward, Amy placed her hand on her grandmother’s knee and said gently, “The baby’s name is Amy.”
    “Amy! Yes…Amy.” The old woman looked up at Amy in amazement. “How’d you know?” Her eyes glazed with sudden memories. “My Amy. Smart…quick like—like...” she stumbled, unable to find the word she wanted.
    “Lightning. That’s what you used to say, Grams, ‘ quick like lightning.’ ” Amy realized that the moment had come. She pulled a second baby photo of herself from her purse and hesitated. She was taking a huge chance by positioning two of the same photos side by side with the hope of triggering a memory. At best, Amy might learn something. At worst, her grandmother would simply not understand why Amy had placed two identical photos on the lap blanket. Convincing herself she had nothing to lose, Amy positioned the second photo beside the first one. Now, the two baby photos of Amy were side by side. She didn’t expect what happened next.
    The older woman stared at the identical photographs. Her eyes darted back and forth between them. Suddenly her head flew up and she looked up at Amy in alarm, her eyes wide. “The same!”
    Amy nodded, “Yes, Grams, they’re exactly the same.”
    Cynthia Hadden’s gray eyes darted around the room and her fingers began to tremble. She dropped the photo of Sharalynn. Her hands flew to her face. She rocked back and forth in her chair. “No,” she wailed, “No, no, no!” Amy reached over to comfort her, but the woman’s cries grew frantic. When the nurse came running in, Amy fled, tears streaming down her cheeks.
     

CHAPTER 6
     
     
    As Amy left the US101 at Sanville, she noticed dark storm clouds building over the Pacific and a fresh breeze whipping up whitecaps close to shore. She pulled into an area of estate properties, slowing in front of a sprawling two-story set well back from the road. Amy turned down a long, drive and parked behind her sister-in-law’s Camry.
    The front door burst open and Nita stepped onto the porch, her ample arms motioning for Amy to move her car.
    Amy grabbed Jamie’s favorite stuffie from the passenger seat and stepped out, the wind whipping her long hair across her face. “I’ll only stay a few minutes,” She told Nita, waggling the toy. “Just wanted to drop Mush off. Jamie must’ve missed him last night. He hates going to sleep without him.”
    Suddenly, a small flaxen-haired boy burst past Nita, “Mommy! Mommy!” He raced down the steps, running toward Amy, the wind pushing him around like a toy. He squealed with delight.
    Amy knelt and