The Photo with No People

Rosa was helping her grandfather put old photos into an album. Most of them showed birthdays, weddings or family holidays. One photo was different. It showed an empty kitchen with two cups on a table.

"Why did you keep this one?" Rosa asked. "There aren't any people in it."

Her grandfather smiled. "That was our first home. Your grandmother took the photo before we left for our new flat."

Rosa looked more carefully. There was a small drawing on the wall and a child's shoe under a chair.

"The drawing was your mother's," he said. "And that was her favourite shoe. We were always looking for the other one."

Rosa put the picture in the album beside a family photo. Under it she wrote, "Our first kitchen."

"Now I can see the people," she said.

Her grandfather looked at the empty chairs. "Yes. So can I."