A woman’s small act of kindness at a gas station seemed destined to be forgotten, but the boy she helped that day never forgot. Years later, when her world had changed in ways she never imagined, he returned. What he brought with him would shake her to her core.
It was one of those unremarkable Tuesday evenings when everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion. I’d left work around five, and all I wanted was to get home, kick off my heels, and collapse on the couch with a glass of wine.
My feet were killing me, and I still had to stop for gas.
The station was one of those older places on Route 9, the kind with flickering fluorescent lights and a smell that was part coffee and part hot dogs. I grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and headed to the counter, already mentally checking out.