A Choice in His Own Hand
The pen lay across the OWNER RETURN form, exactly where the archive had left it.
Iris picked it up and set it on the bare table between herself and Edwin. Then she took a sheet from Ruth’s notebook and slid it toward him.
“Write your choice there,” she said. “Not on the ledger.”
Edwin looked from the paper to the open record. The line marked SUBJECT IDENTIFIED still carried his name. The return remained UNSIGNED.
Ruth stood at the table’s end, notebook open. Tomás kept his camera lowered. Agnes watched the ledger as if she expected it to object before anyone else did.
“What do you want me to write?” Edwin asked.
“What you choose.”
“That’s what I tried to tell you.”
“You told me what you thought would keep the archive away from me.” Iris tapped the blank sheet. “That’s not the same thing.”
Edwin’s fingers rested beside the pen. His scarred index knuckle caught on the paper’s edge. “And if I choose wrong?”
“Then it will be your wrong choice.”
Ruth’s pencil paused. “For my notes, the proposed return is ownership of the funeral home to Edwin Calloway. Is that accurate?”
“Yes,” Iris said.
Edwin glanced at her. “You don’t have to make it sound so clean.”
“I’m not cleaning it up. I’m asking you to choose.”
He lowered his eyes to the sheet. The pen rolled once under his palm. He caught it, then stopped with its point above the paper.
“I don’t want the business back,” he said.
“Write that.”
He did. The letters were compact and slightly uneven. I refuse the return of Calloway & Sons. He added his name beneath it, then set down the pen.
Iris read the statement once. “Is that all?”
Edwin’s mouth tightened. “I won’t ask you to sign for me. I won’t tell you this is for your own good.” He looked at the paper rather than at her. “I want you to keep the business because it’s yours. If the archive comes for it, I’ll answer for what I did. I won’t hand the answer to you and call it protection.”
Iris had wanted him to say it plainly. Now that he had, she could see the effort in the line of his shoulders, in the way he kept both hands flat on the table instead of reaching for the ledger.
She touched the paper’s lower corner. “You understand that refusing doesn’t undo the transfer.”
Next
On October 21, Iris and Edwin will return to Calloway & Sons to find out whether the ringed hand in the photograph belongs to a presence already inside the lobby—or to the one taking the pictures.