I put the basket down, which I had somehow picked up again.

“Julian, why on earth would you do that?”

He had both shoes off by then.

He looked up and his eyes were wet and he had clearly rehearsed the sentence, because it came out whole.

“Because Maya needed a new wheelchair.”

Part Three: Maya, As I Had Seen Her

I knew who Maya was.

I want to be very careful in this part, because this is the part where I come out worst, and the warm version of this story that went around our town for eight months does not contain it at all.