The Boy at the Corner

They were walking to lunch when Noah stopped.

Diana felt his fingers slip from hers, three fingers first, exactly as he always did when something frightened him.

At the corner, beneath a dead streetlamp, a boy sat barefoot in an olive hoodie.

He was thin, dirty, and shivering.

He also had Noah's face.

Noah asked why the boy looked like him.

Diana removed her sunglasses and saw the resemblance become impossible to deny.

The stranger rose, crossed the pavement, and placed a tarnished silver locket in Noah's hand.

Inside were two baby photographs.

Beneath them, four words had been scratched into the metal: SHE KNOWS WHO TOOK ME.