Chapter 2: The Secret Noah Shared With Someone Else
The hidden cameras captured hundreds of ordinary moments.
Claire wiping peanut butter off Noah's nose.
Teaching him to water flowers.
Listening while he explained dinosaurs with complete confidence.
Nothing looked staged.
Nothing changed when she believed nobody was watching.
That bothered Alexander even more.
One rainy afternoon he opened Camera Seven.
The playroom.
Noah was drawing with crayons.
Claire folded tiny paper airplanes nearby.
Without looking up, Noah suddenly asked,
"Miss Claire?"
"Yes?"
"Do people forget voices?"
Claire stopped folding.
"What do you mean?"
"My mommy."
"I can't remember her talking anymore."
Alexander felt something tighten painfully inside his chest.
Claire didn't answer immediately.
Instead she reached into her tote bag.
From inside she removed a small notebook.
"When my daddy died..."
She turned to a page filled with handwritten memories.
"...I wrote everything I could remember."
"The way he laughed."
"The songs he sang."
"The words only he used."
"So they wouldn't disappear."
Noah stared at the notebook.
"I can do that?"
"You can draw them instead."
The little boy smiled.
His first real smile.
Alexander had forgotten what it looked like.
That night Noah asked for paper before bed.
Mrs. Rivera quietly knocked on Alexander's office door.
"He's drawing Emily."
Alexander rushed upstairs.
Hidden behind the half-open bedroom door, he watched his son carefully sketch messy brown curls and enormous smiling eyes.
"This is Mommy."
Claire smiled.
"Tell me about her."
For nearly forty minutes...
Noah talked.
May you like
More words than Alexander had heard from him in months.
Alexander quietly stepped away before either of them noticed the tears running down his face.
