I Found My Neighbor’s Twin Toddlers Hiding in My Empty Trash Can—Then Their Mother Told Me Why They Had Been Sent to Find Me

“I’m here.”

I stood a few steps away, suddenly aware that I was a stranger at a moment belonging to them.

The woman looked up at me over the girls’ heads.

I wanted to introduce myself.

It seemed absurd to say hello when she was holding two children who had been in my trash can less than an hour before.

“I’m Nora,” I said anyway.

“I know.”