A single eyelash, one orchird petal and a flannel shirt button.

She kept them in an old shoebox sandwiched against old sneakers with laces knotted like lovers, old yellowing papers and letters. All of which had dated back 5, seven, 11, twenty-1, 29 years ago.

All of them incongruous objects, but they all belong in the past.
I outgrew them, my mind memorized all the words on those pages.
Once from a person I knew.

I don't love him.
Lie

I loved him.
past tense

I had loved him.
still past-tense

I love him.
*Present tense. It's now.