The county atlas had one page neatly cut out. Its missing area covered the road beyond Moor Gate. After her mother's death, Esme wondered whether the absence concerned the brother nobody discussed.
The page turned up in a sewing box, folded around a pattern piece. On its reverse, her mother had sketched a sleeve. She had used the sheet because its size suited the work, not because of the destination printed on it. The cut edge matched the atlas exactly.
Inside the folded map was a note from her brother thanking her for repairing a coat. That connection was real, but smaller than Esme's first theory. The page had traveled to him as wrapping and returned with the pattern preserved inside.
Esme reunited the sheet with the atlas in a protective sleeve rather than gluing it back. Its separate journey would otherwise become invisible. She still wanted to understand the family's silence about her brother. The map could not answer that question merely because it had once held his coat. It could show that, at least on one occasion, practical care crossed the distance between them.