Not All The Houses Are Empty

[Polaroid, Sun Angel - Dae-Photo]

I've stolen some of these other families' photos. Badly focused Polaroids half-buried on a bulletin board, doubles from a CVS envelope shoved in a desk drawer. The ones no one will miss. At first I compare then to Hugh's photos, looking for the kids he knew who might have lived here, who would now be in college or working full-time. No one is familiar, but I keep them anyway. I put them in the plastic pages of my binder: a family of four at Disneyland, a velvet-clad toddler screaming on Santa's lap, two children next to a massive sand castle, the older brother with his arm wrapped in mock threat around his sister's delicate neck.
-Lisa Carey, Every Visible Thing