Chapter 2 - SOMEBODY STILL INSIDE
Mrs. Gable was waiting outside the kitchen.
“Where did you get the soup?”
Nora stopped.
“The pot on the stove.”
“That food was prepared for the household.”
“He lives here.”
The slap of Mrs. Gable’s palm against the counter made Nora flinch.
“Don’t get clever.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were hired to clean.
If you want to play nurse, do it somewhere else.”
Nora lowered her eyes.
She hated herself for it until her baby moved beneath her apron.
Then she remembered why she needed the paycheck.
“Yes, Mrs. Gable.”
That night, she returned to room 4B after finishing the laundry.
The fire had burned low.
She added a log and found the old man watching her.
“I got in trouble,” she admitted.
His expression barely changed.
“Not your fault.”
She warmed a washcloth and cleaned his hands.
There was dried food between his fingers.
His nails needed trimming.
The skin beneath his wedding ring looked sore.
Nora worked carefully.
“My mother used to say you can tell what kind of person somebody is by how they act when nobody important is watching.”
She glanced around the room.
“I guess they decided you weren’t important.”
His jaw tightened.
It was so slight she almost missed it.
Nora paused with the washcloth in her hand.
“Can you understand me?”
Silence.
She waited.
The old man blinked.
Once.
Then again.
Nora’s pulse quickened, but she refused to turn hope into certainty.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I’m going to keep talking anyway.”
Over the following weeks, she brought warm meals whenever she could.
She washed his hair, changed his sweater, and bought a thick heated blanket with money she had meant to save for baby clothes.
When another maid saw the shopping bag, she snorted.
“You spent your own money on Old John?”
“He gets cold.”
“He doesn’t know.”
Nora looked at her.
“Then it shouldn’t bother you if I help.”
The maid stopped smiling.
One evening, Nora sat beside the wheelchair with swollen ankles and a hand pressed against her belly.
“I’m naming her Lily.”
The old man’s eyes settled on her.
“I don’t have much.
But she’ll know she’s wanted.”
Her voice broke.
“That part won’t depend on money.”
A tear slid down his cheek.
Nora stared at it.
Then she wiped it away with her thumb.
“You heard me.”
His gaze held hers.
May you like
For the first time since entering that room, Nora felt certain of something.
The man they had thrown away was still there.
