Elira had not noticed it immediately.
Her attention had been focused on the road, the fence, and the places that carried the strongest associations with the accident. She had arrived expecting to confront the familiar features of a painful memory.
The plaque did not fit that expectation.
She moved a little closer.
At first, she thought she might have seen it before. Perhaps it had been there for years. Perhaps she had passed it on another occasion without paying attention.
Then another memory surfaced.
Someone had planted a tree there.
The realization came slowly, as though her mind were searching through a collection of details that had been stored away and rarely examined.
She remembered hearing about the planting years earlier, although she could not immediately recall every detail. The information had existed somewhere at the edges of her awareness, overshadowed by the more painful memories associated with the accident.
