An image from one of the photographs comes back to him. He tries to push it away and focus on the present, but he sees the past.

There weren't as many layers between her and the world as there were with the rest of us.

If anyone was capable of understanding how someone else felt, it was Nancy. There weren't as many layers between her and the world as there were with the rest of us. She had that rare ability of being able to stand in someone else's shoes and get inside their skin.