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A few days later, I went to pick up someone.
The same neighborhood, the building with another coat of paint.
I stood in front of the door and called.
When I opened, I hardly recognized her.
Older, slower, but with the same eyes.
“Mrs. Greene?” I said.
He looked at me for a moment.
Then his face softened.
“Nora?
I smiled, already feeling a knot in my throat.
I hardly recognized her.
***
Mrs. Greene and I were sitting in her little room, as usual.
I told him everything.
About Arthur, the money and Mae.
When I finished, I rummaged through my bag and left an envelope on the table.
“I never gave you the money back,” I said.
It slightly frowned. “You finished school. That was the deal.”
I denied with my head. “You did more than that.”
He didn’t touch the envelope.
“I never gave you back the money.”
Instead, Mrs. Greene looked at me and said, “You went ahead. That’s what matters.”
I smiled in tears.
“Now I can help someone else move forward as well.”
He watched me for a moment, then slowly nodded and took the envelope.
***
That night, I sat down at the kitchen table. Arthur’s notebook was in front of me.
I stroked the covered worn with my fingers.
Then I opened a blank page.
I smiled in tears.
For a moment, I didn’t write anything.
I just sat there, thinking about Arthur.
Then I took a pen and started my own list.
April 3: I returned the money to Mrs. Greene for taking care of the twins so I could finish school. “
The words seemed simple on the page.
But they had a deeper meaning.
I closed the notebook carefully.
I started my own list.
***
Over the next few months, it became a habit.
Nothing important or dramatic, just little things.
Paying someone’s bus ticket.
Help a co-worker who was late with the rent.
Take the purchase to a family on the street.
I didn’t tell anyone.
Because I understood something I hadn’t understood before.
It was not about the amount.
It was the present moment.
It became a habit.
***
One afternoon, Mae was sitting in front of me at the table, watching me write.
“You’re doing the same thing as Arthur, right?” “I’ll try,” I said, looking up.
He smiled slightly. “I think he’d like it.”
I smiled.
“I hope so.”
***
A week later, I went to a quiet cemetery outside the village.
Carter had given me the location.
“I think he would like it.”
It took me a few minutes to find the tombstone with Arthur’s name.
I stayed there for a moment.
Then I put my hand in my pocket.
I took out a ten-bucks bill.
And he gently placed it at the foot of the tombstone.
“I also found you, just like you found me.”
His words sounded strange to him, but they were true.
I stayed there for a moment.
I stayed a little longer, and then I turned around to leave.
But before I left, I took one last look back.
For years, I thought I couldn’t afford kindness, which would cost me too much.
I was wrong.
Because sometimes… it doesn’t go away.