Then
she said, “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I helped start it.”
“I believe you.”
Ariel joined us.
Mrs. Grunwald bent slightly toward her.
“I need you to understand something.”
Ariel waited.
“I love these glasses.”
Ariel’s face brightened.
“And I wasn’t embarrassed by your help.”
“Then why were you upset?”
“Because I wanted to choose who knew my business.”
Ariel nodded slowly.
“Like when Mom wants to post pictures and I tell her not to?”
Mrs. Grunwald glanced at me.
I closed my eyes.
“Apparently we’re making this personal now.”
Ariel smiled.
Mrs. Grunwald did too.
That was the first time the whole thing felt light again.
A few days later, Ariel came home carrying her wooden savings box.
Inside was a glasses case.
She opened it and handed me a folded note.
Mrs. Grunwald had written one sentence.
“Thank you for seeing me before everybody else started looking.”
“You’re keeping
this?”
“Forever.”
Without thinking, my hand moved toward my phone.
Then I stopped.
Ariel noticed.
“You’re not taking a picture?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
She studied me for a second.
“Really?”
“Really.”
Ariel folded the note carefully and placed it inside the case.
Then she tucked the case into the wooden box.
“Can I ask you something?”



