The Last Person Who Remembers

It had a black cloth cover, a stretched elastic band, and a red thread tied around its edge, as though someone had tried to repair a binding that had asked for nothing. The old woman held it with both hands on her lap. Beside it, in a clear sleeve, a ten-by-fifteen-centimeter photograph slid whenever she crossed her legs.

She is the sole witness to a murder. The victim never existed. She has Alzheimer’s.