A Stranger Left an Envelope Beside My Bed on My Sixty-Second Birthday—Then I Found His Photograph with My Son

Inside the grocery store, he pushed the cart and asked whether I wanted chicken or fish.

For several minutes, we looked like any mother and son running errands together.

Then he said the apartment needed stronger locks.

“They’re already changed.”

He stopped near the baking supplies.

“All of them?”

“The ones that needed changing.”

“You could have asked me.