It was folded and worn around the edges, as though he had been carrying it for days.
My name was written across the front.
Sarah.
“I was actually going to give this to Ellie,” he said.
I looked at him.
“To give to me?”
“I’ve been carrying it for about a week.”
He looked embarrassed.
“I kept trying to figure out how to explain who I was without sounding like some strange old man telling a little girl I knew her mother.”
He held the envelope through the window.
“But now you’re here.”
I took it.
It was warm from his shirt pocket.
“Why are you here, Walter?”
I had finally learned his name.
“Why this town? Why my neighborhood?”
He looked down for a moment.
“Read the letter tonight. It explains things better.”
Then he looked back at me.
“But you deserve the short version now.”
He took a breath.
