PART 1
The alley smelled like rain, trash, and old bricks.
Against the wall, a thin homeless boy sat curled into himself, his gray clothes hanging loose on his small body, a wrapped sandwich just placed carefully into his dirty hands.
A little girl in a white coat stood in front of him, her blue bow bright against the gray day.
“Here,” she had whispered. “You can have it.”
The boy looked up like no one had ever handed him something without wanting it back.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
Then she hugged him.
Just for a second.
A small, innocent hug.
The boy froze, his hands still around the sandwich, like kindness was something he didn’t know how to hold.
Footsteps came fast from the mouth of the alley.
“Emily, step back.”
The woman reached them quickly and pulled the little girl back by the shoulders, her voice tight with fear.
The girl looked confused.
“Mom, he’s hungry.”
The woman turned toward the boy, ready to scold, ready to protect, ready to drag her daughter away from danger.
But then she saw his face.
Really saw it.
The soot on his cheeks.
The cracked lips.
The tired eyes looking up at her with fear, not anger.
Something in her expression broke.
Her handbag slipped from her hand and hit the pavement.
The boy stared at her, trembling now, like a memory was trying to hurt him.
May you like
Then, in the smallest voice, he whispered,
“Mom?”
