"I know."
"I thought if I stayed, you'd look at me and see the girl who took your daughter away."
Ray shook his head.
"You didn't take her away."
Sarah broke down.
Ray walked toward her.
He didn't hug her immediately.
He simply stood in front of her.
Then he said:
"She loved you."
Sarah covered her face.
"I loved her too."
"I know."
For twenty years, those words had been missing.
Now they finally existed.
Maya stepped outside.
Rain fell lightly against the pavement.
She looked down at the bandana.
The little stitched flower was almost invisible.
She touched it.
Behind her, the diner door opened.
Ray walked outside.
"You okay?"
Maya nodded.
"Yeah."
He stood beside her.
"You know, I think Lily would've liked this place."
"The diner?"
"The people."
Maya smiled.
"She would've hated the coffee."
Ray laughed.
"Probably."
They stood silently.
Then Maya held out the bandana.
"You sure you don't want it back?"
Ray looked at it.
For a long moment, he didn't answer.
Finally, he shook his head.
"No."
"Why?"
He looked toward the diner.
"Because for twenty years, I kept it because I was afraid that if I let it go, I'd lose her."
Maya waited.
"But I finally realized something."
"What?"
Ray smiled.
"Keeping something isn't the same as remembering it."
He touched the little flower.
"She isn't in the bandana."
Maya's eyes filled with tears.
"Where is she?"
Ray looked at the people inside the diner.
"Everywhere."
Years passed.
Maya eventually became the manager of the diner.
Mrs. Dalton retired.
The children who used to run through the booths grew up.
Ray's motorcycle shop became successful.
Sarah began visiting the diner every month.
And on one particular day each year, the three of them sat at the same booth.
They didn't call it Lily's table.
They didn't need to.
Everyone knew.
One year, Maya asked Sarah:
"Do you still miss her?"
Sarah smiled sadly.
"Every day."
Maya nodded.
"Me too."
Ray looked at them.
"You barely knew her."
Maya touched the bandana around her wrist.
"Maybe."
She smiled.
"But she left me something."
Ray looked down.
The red cloth was faded now.
The flower was almost gone.
But Maya had carefully embroidered a new flower beside it.