My Daughter Disappeared Ten Years Ago—Then I Woke to a Pool Full of Rubber Ducks and a Note That Made Me Scream

keep using it,” she said. “But he asked that it stay here.”

She placed it in my hands.

The cover was soft from use. Inside, Emma’s pencil notes crowded the margins.

Likes sunny rocks

Wings like stained glass

Do not touch with giant fingers

Between two pages lay the pressed yellow flower from her second-grade field trip.

I turned to the back cover.

There, in continue reading …