This happened years ago. She was very young and had a nimbus of curls. She was walking down a sidewalk holding your hand. She was clearly enjoying your company. She kept calling you “my robin.”
When I think of the ways you failed her and why you should have done more, done something–advocated for her–that is the image I see in my head. The last time I know for sure that your relationship to that little girl mattered.
At least to her.