Rebecca’s circumstances improved gradually.

She earned a better position at the cleaning company and began training new employees.

The raise did not make her rich, and it didn’t erase the years of uncertainty, but she could plan more than one month ahead.

Amanda joined the school art club.

Ben discovered a talent for fixing bicycles.

Eli started first grade and announced that he intended to become a veterinarian because he liked animals that were “too stubborn to give up.”

Clarence said that was a perfectly respectable ambition, though he confessed privately that he suspected Eli had been thinking about the old man’s personality rather than any particular animal.