I didn’t offer to announce her need or make myself the hero of the moment.

I quietly asked the cashier whether a store gift card could be offered anonymously.

It could.

I paid for one and left before anybody noticed.

It wasn’t repayment for what I had suffered.

It was simply the kind of help I would have accepted when I had seventeen dollars, if it had come without an audience or a demand for gratitude.

PART 13