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\nPART 2: THE SHOEBOX
\nThe years passed.<\/p>\n
\nPART 2: THE SHOEBOX
\nThe years passed.<\/p>\n
Trixie turned five, then six, then seven.
\nShe learned to read, stopped asking when her father would visit and began asking whether she could paint her bedroom yellow.<\/p>\n
I gained more hours at the dental office and eventually left the bakery. I paid off one credit card, and our lives slowly became steadier.<\/p>\n
But the rent cheques still never cleared.<\/p>\n
By the end of the third year, nearly $29,000 remained untouched in my account.<\/p>\n
I had never spent a single dollar of it.<\/p>\n
I treated it as though it already belonged to Mr. Alvarez.<\/p>\n
Finally, I reached my limit.<\/p>\n
I marched across the yard, knocked on his door and demanded an explanation.<\/p>\n
Without speaking, he handed me an old shoebox.<\/p>\n
The corners were worn, and one side was held together with tape.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOpen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He allowed me inside for the first time.<\/p>\n
His kitchen was neat and quiet. Old photographs covered one wall. In several of them, a younger Mr. Alvarez stood beside a dark-haired woman who had his eyes.<\/p>\n
I sat at the table and lifted the lid.<\/p>\n
Inside were all my rent cheques.<\/p>\n
Every one of them.<\/p>\n
They had been arranged in careful bundles, each marked with the month and year.<\/p>\n
August.<\/p>\n
September.<\/p>\n
October.<\/p>\n
Three years of rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kept them?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
He sat across from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou paid on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t explain anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he looked toward the photographs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter was named Sofia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dark-haired woman was not his wife. She was his daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a little girl named Camila,\u201d he continued. \u201cSofia married young. Her husband was charming at first. Then he began controlling her money, her clothes and everyone she spoke to.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, she called and asked whether she and Camila could stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you tell her?\u201d<\/p>\n
He closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her to go home and fix her marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clock above the stove ticked loudly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I was stubborn. I believed marriage was a promise you kept, even when it hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to them?\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression answered before his words did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey died six weeks later in a car accident. Her husband was driving. He had been drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
I covered my mouth.<\/p>\n
Mr. Alvarez looked down at his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an empty apartment. I had savings. She asked me for help, and I sent her back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t have known.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew she was afraid,\u201d he said. \u201cThat should have been enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you arrived here, you had the same expression Sofia had that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat expression?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike you were trying not to ask for too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
My eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had your daughter beside you. Your car barely worked. And you looked at that small apartment as if it were a palace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to give you time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTime for what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo stand up again.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the shoebox.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why make me write the cheques?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I didn\u2019t want you to feel like a charity case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer broke something open inside me.<\/p>\n
He pointed toward the box.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou paid every month. You did your part. What I chose to do afterward was my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wiped my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly $29,000 is not a small decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could have used the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wear the same shirt every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI own seven identical shirts.\u201d<\/p>\n
A surprised laugh escaped me.<\/p>\n
For the first time, he almost smiled.<\/p>\n
Then he removed a white envelope from beneath the cheques and pushed it towards me.<\/p>\n
My name was written across the front.<\/p>\n
Inside was a letter confirming that the money in my account belonged to me and that he had no intention of cashing the cheques.<\/p>\n
There was also a second document.<\/p>\n
I read it twice.<\/p>\n
Then I looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis cannot be real.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was transferring ownership of the garage apartment to me.<\/p>\n
Not the whole blue house.<\/p>\n
Just our small unit and the narrow piece of land surrounding it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t accept this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou barely know me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have watched you for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
He listed everything he had noticed.<\/p>\n
Me leaving for work before sunrise.<\/p>\n
Helping Trixie with her reading.<\/p>\n
Paying every bill before buying anything for myself.<\/p>\n
Keeping every dollar ready for him even though he never collected it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt belonged to you,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n