“When?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“Cannot or will not?”
“Both.”Standardized & Admissions Tests
I laughed bitterly.
“My son is sick. My daughter is hungry. I came here because I had nothing left. And now I find the one object that belonged to my dead brother hanging around your employer’s neck.”
Mrs. Alvarez looked genuinely shaken.
“I am sorry.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“No.”Language Resources
She reached into her pocket.
“Take this.”
She handed me an envelope.
I didn’t open it.
“What is it?”
“Your first week’s salary.”
“I worked two hours.”Doors & Windows
“Mr. Bennett pays caregivers weekly in advance.”
My hands trembled.
“How much?”
“Five thousand dollars.”
I stared at her.
I thought I had misheard.
Five thousand?”
“Yes.”Bath & Body Products
I nearly dropped the envelope.
That was more money than I had earned in three months at my old cleaning job.
“Why?”
“Because no one stays.”
I thought of Brandon.
Medicine.
Food.
Heat.
Then I bought groceries.Business News
Real groceries.
Chicken.
Milk.
Fruit.
Bread.
Eggs.
Cereal Emma liked.Language Resources
Cookies.
Fresh vegetables.
Medicine.
Two new blankets.
A space heater.
Emma stared at the shopping bags as if I had brought home Christmas.
“Mommy, are we rich?”Food
I laughed and cried at the same time.
“No, baby.”
I kissed her forehead.
“We just got lucky.”
That night, after they slept, I sat at our tiny kitchen table and pulled an old cardboard box from the closet.
Ryan’s box.
I had carried it through six apartments and two marriages.Food & Grocery Retailers
Inside were photographs.
Letters.
School papers.
A baseball glove.
And one picture that made my heart stop.
Ryan at twenty-one.
Standing beside Kitchen & Dining
me outside our grandmother’s house.
Around his neck was the same silver locket.Book a Spa Day
I turned the photo over.
Summer 2007.
Three years before his death.
My hands began to shake.
Ryan had disappeared in October 2010.
Police said his car had been found near Lake Michigan.
A body had washed ashore eleven days later.Follow Stars
Badly decomposed.
The police told us identification was made through dental records and personal effects.
There had been no viewing.
We cremated what we were told was Ryan’s body.
I had stood at a cemetery holding a small urn while a priest talked about eternal peace.
But what if it hadn’t been Ryan?Learn a Language
The thought was insane.
Impossible.
And yet the necklace existed.
I barely slept.
At seven the next morning, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
