Lloyd stared at the glass of lemonade he held between his hands and smiled. He had been playing Pai-shā with his uncle and, for the first time in his life, he had actually won the game. It had been a victory that had felt absolutely incredible.

“You should drink that lemonade before it gets warm in your hands, dear,” Edna said, as she passed him by.

Lloyd blinked, as the images of his memories dissolved before his inner eye.

“Right.” He lifted the glass to take a sip. It felt a bit slippery in his hand because of the film of condensed water on the outside of the cool glass. “The lemonade is delicious, Edna. Did you make it yourself?” he inquired.

“Of course, dear,” Edna croaked. “I only use fresh lemons and cane sugar for that. It gives the drink its fine, fresh taste.”

Lloyd smiled at the woman. Jay adored his adoptive parents. He had recounted the story about how Ed and Edna Walker had found him on their doorstep as a baby several times.

Lloyd leaned back in his chair, craned his neck and looked in all directions, to make sure that no one was close enough to overhear their conversation. He cleared his throat.

“Ahem, Edna?” he ventured.

The friendly woman turned around and looked at him expectantly, drying off her hands with a grey cloth towel. “Yes, dear?”

“The guys and I are putting together a party for Jay and Nya’s Yin-Yang Promise anniversary and we thought it might be great to have some old photos of him as a child that we could add to the album for the celebration. Do you have some pictures I could borrow for that purpose, Edna?” Lloyd asked.

Edna put her hands together. “Yes, Lloyd, of course I can help you with that. Hold on, I’ll go get the photo album right away. Ooh, I love leafing through that! Jay was such an adorable little boy.” Her expression turned melancholic for a moment. She sighed. “I simply adore little children,” Edna swooned. “And Jay and Nya make such a beautiful couple,” she added, with a meaningful look.

Lloyd smiled warmly at her. Edna must be truly looking forward to having grandchildren one day, he thought. He watched her rummage through a dresser in the back of the trailer, in search of the old photo album. Lloyd looked around. The couple had been living in this trailer, which was located in the middle of a junk yard, practically all their lives. He tried to imagine what it must have been like for Jay to grow up here. Junk yard or not, Lloyd was sure that Jay must have had a good childhood, with two loving parents who deeply cared about him.

Edna placed the photo album on the table in front of him.

“Here, this is it,” she announced triumphantly. “You can take it with you, if you like, but you must promise me to bring it back. We only have this one, you know.”

Lloyd thought about this for a moment. “How about I just take a picture of the photos I need and leave the album here altogether?” he suggested.

Edna was clearly relieved at the prospect. “That is a great idea, Lloyd, thank you. It would break my heart having to part with this.” She opened the album and pointed at the first picture. “Look, this is how it all began.” The grainy image showed a basket, with a white blanket draped over it. A tiny head stuck out of the woollen cover, eyes huge, and a hand-made blue teddy bear was tucked in next to it.

“This is how you found him?” Lloyd asked, curious. “Someone just left him on your doorstep?” He looked at Edna expectantly, hoping that she would elaborate a bit more on the story. Edna dropped her gaze andfumbled nervously with the tissue in her hand.

“Yes,” she said, without looking at him, “someone just left him at our doorstep.”

Lloyd frowned. It was odd how Edna had just repeated the sentence back to him.

“It must have been quite a shock to find him there,” Lloyd probed. He was not ready to give up, yet. Edna continued leafing through the album, apparently lost in thought.

“Can I see that first picture again, please, Edna?” Lloyd asked softly. Edna looked at him and her eyes seemed to search his face for any signs of… what, exactly, he wondered. Criticism? Reluctantly, Edna tore her gaze away from him and leafed back to the first page of the album. Lloyd scrutinised the picture more closely.

“When was this taken, in the evening, or during the night, perhaps?” Lloyd asked.

“No, it was daytime,” Edna said, without missing a beat.

Interesting. And quite odd, Lloyd thought. If he had wanted to anonymously put a child on someone’s doorstep, he would have done so at night, or at least, at a time of day where the shadows were long enough to hide in. Something nagged at him. He decided to press on a little further.

“You must have been so surprised… What were you doing when that doorbell rang?” he asked, as innocently as he could muster.

Edna stared at him. Her mouth worked, but no sound came out. She blinked. “Erm… We were… we were… having coffee, I think. I… I can’t quite recall,” she added hastily.

Lloyd tilted his head. He noticed a pearl of sweat forming on Edna’s forehead and she fidgeted nervously when she looked around for her husband.

“Did you see who it was? I mean…” Lloyd wanted to say more, but did not get the chance because Ed chose that very moment to make an appearance. He had been working right outside the trailer and now stepped through the open door, narrowing his eyes at Lloyd.

“What’s with all the questions, Lloyd?” he asked, his tone sharper than he had intended.

Lloyd shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Well, Ed, I was just thinking… You live on a junk yard, in the middle of the desert. Whoever put baby Jay on your doorstep couldn’t have gotten very far, without being seen, right? I mean, you can practically see for miles, up to the horizon…”

Ed took the photo album and snapped it shut with a loud noise. It was clearly a statement.

“I think we have talked about this subject long enough.” He turned his back on Lloyd, to address his wife. “Edna, dear, haven’t you made some of your delicious sponge cake for this special afternoon?” he asked and drilled her with a determined look.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Edna said quickly. “I’ll go prepare the tea. Be right back.” Without so much as a glance at Lloyd, Edna hurried off to the rear part of the trailer, where the kitchen was located. Lloyd followed her with his eyes, a puzzled frown on his face. When he glanced up, he was slightly taken aback by Ed’s angry stare. Ed Walker usually was a very friendly, amicable man, but right now, he looked furious. Something must have really angered him, to lure him out of his comfort zone like that. Lloyd swallowed.

“I think I’m going to go outside and look for the others, tell them the tea is almost ready…” He rose and almost knocked over the chair in his haste to get out of the trailer.

Squinting against the bright sunshine, Lloyd scanned the vast junk yard in search of Jay and Nya. They had gone outside for a stroll among the large piles of junk, to stretch their legs a bit. Lloyd looked around. This really was a remote place.

There it was again. That nagging feeeling, tugging on his brain.

Lloyd climbed up a pile of old cars, to have a better view of the entire yard and its surroundings. He spotted Jay and Nya behind the next heap of scrap and whistled. The couple looked up and waved at him. He gestured at them to come back and they started moving in his direction.

Lloyd let his eyes wander around the desert that surrounded them. They really were in the middle of nowhere, he thought. Then he suddenly realised what had bothered him.

Who in the Spirit’s name would come all the way out here, just to drop off a baby in a basket? There were no settlements nearby. Where had Jay’s real parents come from, he wondered. If they had wanted to get rid of their baby, wouldn’t it have been much more convenient to drop it off in a nearby village? Or better yet, somewhere in the city?

“Lloyd, what are you waiting for?” Jay shouted from the foot of the car pile. “I thought the cake was ready?” he added, rubbing his stomach. “I’m hungry.”