He told me she had a funny
little laugh that sounded like a hiccup.
He even showed me her picture.
She was missing a front tooth.
I lowered the letter.
My eyes filled.
Dad had been right.
I had wanted to become a veterinarian.
For years, that had been my biggest dream.
After his death, I’d slowly stopped talking about it.
Eventually, I’d stopped believing it was possible.
I wiped my eyes and continued reading.
When I finished eating, Tom asked whether I had somewhere safe to go.
I told him about my aunt in Georgia.
She was my mother’s sister, but I hadn’t seen her in years.
I didn’t know whether she’d take me in.
Tom said we should find out.
He drove me to a bus station and asked me to remain in his warm truck while he made some phone calls.
He contacted a service that helped locate my aunt.
And somehow, he reached
her.
She agreed to take me in.
He returned with a bus ticket to Macon, Georgia.
But the journey required a long connection in Atlanta, and he was worried I might need more money along the way.
He emptied his wallet.
There were only four dollars and some change left.
So he removed his wristwatch.
Your father’s watch.
I tried to refuse it.
He insisted.
He told me that if anything went wrong and I needed money, I should sell it to finish my journey.
When I noticed the engraving, I told him his wife must have given it to him.
He laughed.
He said, “June will probably lecture me for an hour. But then she’ll understand. That’s how we work.”
Before I boarded the bus, I asked why he was helping a girl he didn’t know.
He crouched so our eyes were level.
And he said something I’ve carried
with me every day since.
”You can’t fix the whole world, kiddo. But you can make the next ten minutes better for somebody. Tonight, somebody’s doing that for you. Someday, you’ll get your chance to do it for someone else.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth.
Those were his words.
Not something similar.
The exact words he’d told me when I was little.
I kept reading.
Macon was the beginning of a different life.
My aunt was waiting when I arrived.
