The paint had faded.
One wheel was slightly crooked.
But Sophie had loved it.
Doc picked it up.
He remembered the way she used to hold it above her head and pretend it was flying.
Then he found the drawing.
The black motorcycle.
The pink passenger seat.
The words DADDY AND ME.
Doc held the paper carefully.
He had forgotten one detail.
Beside the pink seat, Sophie had drawn a tiny square.
Inside it was a rabbit.
Her stuffed rabbit.
Doc stared.
Then he laughed softly through tears.
"Of course you did."
He remembered her explaining that every passenger needed a friend.
He remembered arguing that a toy rabbit didn't need a seat.
She had insisted otherwise.
Now, years later, Ellie had asked for exactly the same thing.
A place for Mr. Bumblebee.
Doc placed the drawing beside him.
Then he looked at Sophie's little gloves.
A memory rose unexpectedly.
It was the final Christmas they had spent together.
Sophie had been sitting beside the tree, wrapped in a blanket, holding a toy motorcycle in her lap. Doc had asked what she wanted most.
She thought about it.
Then she said, "I want everybody to have a turn."
Doc had laughed.
"A turn doing what?"
"Being happy."
He remembered kissing her forehead.
He remembered thinking that children said beautiful things because they hadn't yet learned how complicated life could become.
Now he understood that Sophie hadn't been offering a philosophy.
She had been describing the world she wished existed.
A world where happiness wasn't something only healthy children could reach.
A world where somebody would always think to make room.
Doc placed the drawing back in the box.
Then he removed the pink ribbon from his vest.
He held it beside the picture.
For eight years, he had thought the unfinished motorcycle ride represented something he owed Sophie.
Now another possibility entered his mind.
Perhaps he couldn't complete the adventure they had planned.
But he could carry the kindness she had given him into someone else's life.
Doc closed the box.
For the first time in years, he didn't feel that putting it away meant abandoning her.
Two weeks later, Ellie returned home from the hospital.
The infection had improved, but she remained tired and needed time to recover her usual routine. Her doctors recommended patience and careful monitoring, and Rachel and Mark postponed several activities.