Reading it, I could hear her voice so clearly she might have been in the room, and I had to keep setting the pages down and picking them back up.

But before I reached the end, I saw that the last page had been folded on its own and sealed with tape gone yellow and brittle with age.

Across the outside, in Mama’s careful hand, were seven words. Read this at the bank, not here.

Chapter 7 — Five-Oh-Five

I read it twice.

Then I put the cash back in the tin, tucked the letter into my purse, and told Lonnie I had an errand.

He started to say something and thought better of it.