Bella stood in the quiet hall of the elementary school waiting for the fifth grade students to break for their lunch. There was an unspoken sentiment when passing through a school. Any school for that matter. As if they were the relative keeper of memories long past. She paced through the hall and looked around. She was surrounded by the artwork of pumpkins and ghosts and witches and goblins. Decorations from Halloween were still pinned to the large orange and blue fiberboards lingering down the length of the long hall. Soon they would be replaced by cutouts of turkey-hands and Pilgrims and Native Americans and yellowed cornucopias overflowing with a variety of vegetables.

Bella moved to the small window of the classroom door and watched the teacher lean against her desk as she spoke to the class. She was a young woman, no older than Bella herself, and she kept her dark hair back exposing her olived skin and Mediterranean features. She caught sight of Bella in the window and softly smiled in acknowledgment. Bella backed away from the door as the children were released and they came pouring into the hallway and headed for the cafeteria. The teacher followed the last little girl to the door and waved Bella in.

'Hello… I'm Andrea Santos,' the teacher smiled.

'Hi. Bella Swan,' Bella took her hand and stepped inside the fifth grade classroom. Instinctively, she examined the inside of the small classroom. Typical fifth grade décor. Desks. A wall with the student's artwork. The founding fathers above the chalkboards. Grammar and mathematical charts, etc. No American flag. The wall at the back of the room had a schoolpicture of Joseph Mackenzie hanging in a small wooden frame. There were pink and blue shaped hearts with colorful messages scribed in them surrounding the photograph. Bella felt her heart sink.

Andrea Santos leaned against the side of her desk and watched Bella move through the classroom. 'Since you're not one of my student's parents, I'm assuming you're here about Joseph.'

Bella turned her attention away from the back wall and nodded. 'Yes. That's right… I'm investigating his disappearance.'

'I've spoken with several of the detectives already…'

'I understand, Miss Santos. I don't want to waste your time… I know how hard this has probably been for you. I just have a few questions of my own, if you don't mind,' Bella crossed back and stood aside of the desk.

Andrea looked at the picture of Joseph and then back at Bella. 'He was a sweet boy,' she smiled softly. 'Quiet.'

'He did well in class?'

Andrea nodded. 'Yes. He was a very good student. One of my favorites.'

'Did he get along with the other students?'

'He was well liked. I never had any trouble from Joseph.'

Bella moved to the wall of artwork and skimmed over the collection of drawings. Trees and birds and families in the park. Buildings. Boats in the harbor. 'Do you know if he was having any trouble at home?'

'No,' she shook her head. 'I don't think so.'

'But you're not sure.' Bella looked back at Andrea Santos.

'When you spend every day with young children you become attuned to their emotions. Children who are having trouble at home usually act out. They bully or shut down. They don't quite understand how to deal with the feelings they're having. Joseph was a happy boy. In my opinion he was very loved and secure.'

'Do you know if there might have been anything else bothering him? Something outside of the home…'

Andrea shook her head. 'Not that I could see. He never appeared to have any troubles. He never came to me in that regard, anyway.'

'Maybe he said something to one of your other students. Someone he trusted.'

'We had a discussion with the class when he first went missing. In fact the principal and vice principal gathered all the classes to inform them of Joseph's disappearance and seek out any information any of the students might have. Nothing came to light.'

Bella nodded. 'I appreciate your time Miss Santos. Thank you.'

Andrea comfortably smiled. 'Please… call me Andrea.'

'Andrea. If you can think of anything… anything at all, please let me know.' Bella gave her a card with her name and cell number on it and walked toward the door.

'Bella…'

Bella stopped and turned back.

'He was late for class one day. He said he tripped and fell in some water near an alleyway and had to go back home and change his pants. He was afraid the other children would make fun of him. It happened right before he disappeared. I… I completely forgot about the incident. It must have slipped my mind with everything going on.'

Bella nodded. 'Did he say where?'

Andrea shook her head. 'No.'

'Thank you Andrea. You've been a great help.' She left the classroom and walked down the hall and exited out onto West 45th Street. Joseph Mackenzie's building was three blocks over. He and his mother and his uncle lived in the Clinton apartment building on West 44th street off of 10th Ave. She knew he walked to and from school every day. Most of the children did.

She walked to the end of West 45th and crossed a busy 10th Ave. There was a Hess station a block up in the center of the intersection. Vehicles pulled in and out, filling the lot and squeezing behind one another waiting for their turn at the gas pumps. Behind the Hess station was two acres of demolished lot. An entire city block. It was sealed off with girders and ten foot high chainlink fencing. Construction had seized and now it looked like an urban wasteland.

Bella walked down a block and turned onto West 44th Street. The buildings were mostly redbrick and they were squeezed together down both sides of the street. Trees lined the sidewalks. The foliage had changed and darkened. Dead leaves agilely floated down the walks and rested on the cars parked along the curb. She walked to the end of West 44th and stopped in front of the Clinton apartment building. It was a five story walkup. Redbrick like the others. Squared air condition window units hung from some of the windows. Rusted and weathered. Water dripped from the units wetting the sidewalk below.

It had been six weeks since Joseph Mackenzie had gone missing. Almost three weeks since he was found. Bella climbed the stairs of the Clinton building to the third floor. The anticipation of meeting the boy's mother began to cripple her nerve. Her stomach tightened. She walked down the hall to apartment 3E and breathed and softly knocked on the chipped green paint of the hardwood door. Voices clamored from somewhere within the walls. There were the thumping of footsteps and some shuffling and then the bolt on the door cracked and the door swung open. An older man stood in the doorway and looked Bella over with an unfavorable glare.

'Well?' he grunted.

Bella faltered. '… Hello. I'm Bella Swan. I was hoping I could speak with…'

'Don't you people ever give it a rest? Can't you just leave well enough alone? My nephew is barely cold…'

'I'm trying to find who did this to your nephew Mr. Amato. There were other boys… just like Joseph. This might happen again to some other family.'

The man hacked in his throat and swallowed. He shook his head and held to the door.

'We already spoke with the police and the detectives and we've given everything we got. If they haven't found this guy by now, they ain't never gonna find him. My sister has had enough…' he began to swing the heavy door shut.

'Wait…' a voice called from inside the apartment. 'It's okay Anthony. Let the young woman in.'

The man huffed and rubbed at the end of his nose and stepped aside, still holding to the door, allowing a narrow passage between himself and the wall. Bella gave a respectful smile and nodded and squeezed by. She walked down the front hall and entered the living space of the apartment. Pictures of Joseph were placed across a mantle at the front of the room. They were mixed with old black and white photographs in aged and tarnished metal frames. Men and women and families collected and dressed in the respectable fashions of a pre-depression era. A 19th century Bersaglieri stood in his uniform with his round wide-brimmed hat, its dark feathers spurring from the right side. Resting under the mantle in the corner was a child's wooden chair with a stuffed snowman in the seat.

Bella cleared her throat. A woman in her late forties sat at a table by the window drinking coffee. She was hardened and matured and appeared gray in the soft light coming through the window. There was a sense of divinity in her stature. Bella got a much different impression than she had from the church. The woman turned away from the window and quietly took Bella in. Her dark eyes said everything.

'Would you like some coffee?'

'Thank you,' Bella nodded.

The woman poured her a cup of coffee from the kettle atop the table and slid it to the place across from where she sat. 'You'll have to excuse my brother. It's in his nature to be overprotective. After my husband was killed he came to live with us. He's been an integral part of our lives. Especially Joseph's.'

Bella crossed the room and sat down across from the woman. 'Of course. It's completely understandable. I hope I'm not intruding, Mrs. Mackenzie.'

The woman softly shook her head and a sad smile crossed her lips. 'Please… call me Marie.'

'Marie. I'm Bella,' she smiled warmly.

The woman watched Bella for a long moment and then she spoke. 'Joseph was a very special boy. I knew the moment he was born he was different… one of God's chosen ones. He was born to serve a very special purpose, Bella. Do you understand?'

'I'm not sure.'

The woman sipped her coffee. 'Being a Catholic has been embraced by my family for many centuries. Long before my great grandfather immigrated to this country. Long before the industrialization and modernization of the world. There was a time when faith was all a family had. It was as much a part of you as the flesh on your bones or the blood in your veins. It was how we survived. My boy is dead because it is His will. Because sometimes we have to know in our hearts this life is more than we can comprehend. Joseph is with God now. I know this as sure as you are sitting here before me. I also know my boy has brought you to me, Bella. Whether you accept it or not, he has found his way to you and now you are here.'

Bella nodded. 'Yes…'

'Good. I hoped you would.'

Bella paused. 'I need your help, Marie.'

The woman smiled with her eyes. 'It is not my help you seek. I am merely a woman who has lost her son. Tragically… yes. But lost, just the same. This is how you would have me see it. Am I correct? This is what you think.'

'I don't think…'

'Then don't. I loved Joseph very much, Bella… more than any one person can place a value on anything in this world. I refused to see my boy when they found him. I did not want to tarnish the memory of who he was, even though I suffered to see him one last time. But he is in here,' Marie pointed to her heart, 'he will always live here until the day comes when we are together again.'

'I understand.'

'I know you do. Your eyes told me when you first sat down. You have suffered loss as well. Sooner or later we all do. What you must understand is that nothing is ever lost. Not truly. We let our senses trick us into believing something is not there because we cannot see it or hear it or feel the tenderness against our own flesh. This is true blindness. Blindness among the departed. Blindness of the soul. When I was a little girl there was a very terrible winter. People were out of work. There was no electricity for days. My sister Lena came down with pneumonia. She was still very young. We had no money. No one had any money. It was a very desperate time for many people. Poverty was the only way. My mother and father and brothers all worked. I was left to care for her. What does a little girl know about a sick child? My mother's family attempted to help, but there was nothing they could do. This, as you might expect, did not end well. It was my first lesson in faith, my dear. If I could have I would have changed places with Lena. She was the baby. She was my sister. I loved her very much,' the woman paused and slid her hand across the table and rested it across Bella's fingers, 'there is no logic to how God works… He has a plan for all of us, even you.'

'I'm so lost,' Bella shook her head.

The woman gently squeezed her hand. 'You are already on the path. You must first learn to forgive. Time will serve you, as it does us all. You will see. Trust in your heart. Trust in God.'

'I'll try.'

'No. You have to believe, Bella. It is the only way. Let go of what you think you know. For I can tell you with all my love, you know nothing.'

Bella watched Joseph Mackenzie's mother and then she looked through the window into the soft sunlight filtering down, blanketing their pairing with an effervescent glow.