Part 4: The Wall

The contractor inspected the plans and the wall from both sides. He found an old access panel behind a cabinet in the bicycle shop. He did not open it immediately. Ms. Kim asked him to check the electrical wiring and provide a written estimate first.

Rose attended the inspection with Adrian. She brought the photograph and showed the contractor where the press had stood. He listened, then explained what the plans showed and what he could not know until the panel was opened safely.

“Will it take a long time?” Rose asked.

“Not to check it. Longer if we find repairs are needed.”

She accepted the answer. Adrian had arranged a chair for her, but she chose to stand until she was tired. When she sat, he placed the chair where she could see the panel without blocking the contractor's work.

The estimate arrived two days later. Ms. Kim agreed to pay for the inspection because the space was part of her building. She did not promise that anything found inside would belong to me, Rose, or the bakery. We agreed to document the contents and ask for advice if ownership was unclear.

When the contractor opened the panel, the room behind it was smaller than Rose remembered. It contained an old shelf, a broken stool, and three flat boxes wrapped in brown paper. There was no hidden fortune and no dramatic light switch. The air smelled of dust and dry cardboard.

Rose laughed. “It was larger when I was twenty.”

The contractor checked that the space was safe before anyone entered. Ms. Kim photographed the boxes in place. We moved them to a clean table and opened one carefully. Inside were paper samples with printed borders, typefaces, and color tests.

The second box contained proofs for a neighborhood booklet. The third held invoices and a list of customers. Some names belonged to businesses that no longer existed. Others were still on the street, including Mr. Bell's bicycle shop.

He found an invoice for a sign Ada had printed when he opened. “I still have the sign in my back room,” he said. “I thought my father made it.”

Rose looked at the handwriting on the invoice. “Ada did the lettering. Your father built the frame.”

We did not decide what to do with the papers that afternoon. Ms. Kim contacted a local archive to ask how to preserve them and how to determine whether any records contained private information. The archivist offered to review the collection before anything was displayed.

Adrian asked Rose whether she wanted to take the recipe card home. She said yes and checked that it was still in her own box. He did not gather her things without asking.

At the bakery, I made tea while Rose rested. She looked at the receipt with the shapes and asked whether I understood it now.

“The roof, the windows, and the press mark,” I said.

“And the line through the square?”

I admitted I did not know.

“That's where Ada said the shelf leaned. It was always crooked.”

The detail was too small to unlock a door or identify a treasure. It was exactly the kind of thing a sister might remember. I wrote it down only after Rose agreed that it could be included with the photograph.