NOTE TO READER

WHEN I WENT over to say good-bye to Luis, his mother came to the door. I thanked her for being so kind to my mother. She smiled, of course, and said it was nothing. But then, as she went to call Luis, I thought of one more thing I needed to say.

“You really should watch his movie!”

Mrs. Fernandez turned back to look at me. In her fancy church dress, with her black hair slicked back into a neat bun, she looked intimidating. How could I tell her what to do? And yet I owed it to Luis to try.

“I mean, I haven’t seen it yet, no one has, but . . . he’s good at talking to people. And listening to them and helping them share their stories. At least he was with me. And I know he’s really smart and he’d be a great doctor, or lawyer, or engineer, but . . . I think he’d be pretty good at documentaries too.”

She laughed then and took my hand. “You’re right, Claudia.” She smiled again, more warmly this time, and promised that she would.

Luis had copied all the videos he’d recorded onto a portable hard drive and packed it in a little red box so I could watch them whenever I wanted.

I don’t know how his movie is going to turn out or what it’s going to say about me and my family. I don’t know what the story of this summer will look like from his point of view. But I told him about my plans to make this binder and said he could read it if he wanted when I was done.

We promised we’d stay in touch, and I think we will.