Ruby shook her head.
“But they didn’t.”
She stood very still, considering something larger than herself.
She had always imagined important choices felt important when you made them.
Apparently they did not.
Sometimes an important choice looked like nine hundred dollars beneath a rusty bench.
Sometimes it looked like spending lunch money on bus fare.
Sometimes it looked like an old woman saving a document in a wooden desk.
Sometimes it looked like accepting help without surrendering independence.
Or apologizing twelve years late.
Or answering a telephone call.
Or admitting you had failed to pay attention.
Ruby closed her backpack.
“Can we go home now?”
Claire smiled.
“We can.”
Nathaniel walked them to the elevator.
Before the doors closed, Ruby suddenly looked at him.
“Mr. Graves?”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever figure out how you lost your wallet?”
Nathaniel blinked.
Claire laughed.
After everything they had discovered, nobody had asked.
