"Please… get something warm."
"I'm Nora," I added, and also shared my last name. I introduced my twins, leaning them over so Arthur could see them. He repeated my name once, as if he didn't want to forget it.
"Nora."
I walked home that night instead of taking the bus, three miles in the rain, holding my girls close so they wouldn't get wet.
By the time I got to my apartment, my shoes were soaked, and my hands were numb.
He didn't want to forget it.
I remember standing there, staring at my empty wallet.
Thinking I was stupid.
That I had made a mistake.
And that I couldn't afford kindness.
***
The next few years weren't easy.
I worked afternoons at a diner and nights at the library. I slept whenever the girls did, which wasn't much.
There was a woman in my building, Mrs. Greene, who changed everything.
"You leave those babies with me when you've got a shift," she told me one afternoon.
I had made a mistake.
I tried to pay her.
Mrs. Greene shook her head. "You finish school. That's enough."
So I did, slowly, one class at a time.
Lily and Mae grew up in that small, raggedy apartment, then another, then something a little better after I got steady work doing administrative support for a small firm.
It wasn't easy.
But for a while, that felt like enough.
I tried to pay her.
***
Twenty-seven years passed. I am 44 now. My girls have grown.
Two years ago, somehow, life found a way to pull me under.
***
Mae got seriously ill when she was 25. It started small. Then it wasn't.
Doctor visits turned into procedures. Procedures turned into bills that didn't stop.
I worked longer hours, picked up extra jobs, and cut back on everything.
But it still wasn't enough.
I was drowning again.
Life found a way to pull me under.
***
That morning, I sat at my desk, staring at another overdue notice, trying to figure out what I could delay.
That's when the door opened.
A man in a charcoal suit stepped inside and walked toward my cubicle.
"Are you Nora?" he asked when he stopped beside me.
"Yes," I responded skeptically.
He stepped forward and placed a small, worn box on my desk.
"My name is Carter," he said. "I represent the estate of Arthur."
"Are you Nora?"
The name struck me instantly. The man I'd met for 30 seconds in 1998. I'd never forgotten him and had always wondered what happened to him. I never saw him again.
"He spent years trying to find you," Carter said. "He asked me to give this to you personally."
My hands didn't feel steady as I reached for the box.
