“I came looking for you.”
I stared at him.
“Not specifically here,” he clarified. “I didn’t know where you were. But for the last few years, I’ve been trying to find the children from Maple Street.”
“The children?”
“All of you. As many as I could.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the evening sky for a second.
“Because I promised someone.”
Then he smiled sadly.
“And when you reach my age and doctors start giving you certain kinds of news, you start thinking seriously about promises you haven’t finished keeping.”
He looked at me.
“You were on my list, Sarah.”
My throat tightened.
“For three years.”
He laughed softly.
“I just never imagined I’d find you because your daughter walked up to my truck looking exactly like you did thirty years ago.”
That night, after Ellie fell asleep, I sat at my kitchen table and opened Walter’s letter.
