The Address Erased From Autofill

For months after her mother died, Beth kept accidentally selecting the old address when ordering online. The shopping website remembered it more reliably than she remembered to check. A parcel of towels finally went to the house's new owners, who contacted her politely. Beth arranged collection and apologised with an intensity that exceeded the small inconvenience she had caused them.

At the door, she noticed a yellow bicycle in the hall and different curtains behind the glass. The woman handed over the parcel without inviting her inside. Beth was relieved and disappointed at once. She wanted the house to remain private for its new occupants, but some unreasonable part of her still expected the right to enter without explaining herself.

Back home, she opened the saved addresses and hovered over the delete button. Removing an entry seemed a poor ceremony for losing a place. She considered copying the address into a notebook, then laughed because she knew it as well as her own name. What she feared losing was not information. The website could not preserve the permission the address once represented.

She deleted it and checked the order for her next purchase. Later that evening, she wrote to the new owner thanking her and mentioning that the back gate sometimes stuck after rain. The woman replied with thanks and a photograph of a rose beginning to flower. Beth saved the picture separately, without asking for more. It showed something continuing there that did not require her to return.