“My mom packed way too much soup today,” Noah said quietly.

“I can’t drink it all.”

Arthur looked up at Noah, picked up his plastic spoon, and took a tiny sip of soup.

I slipped back out into the hallway before Principal Vance came out of his office.

I knew right then that every penny on my porch floor belonged to those twenty-three kids, whether Dale Heckert liked it or not.

By two o’clock Irene Bauer was sitting on my living room floor with an empty shoebox next to her knee.