"What's his name?" I asked softly.
"Mateo." She looked at him lovingly. "I keep telling him I'll do better. Every night."
"You have no idea how much this means to me."
"You're better now," I said. "You're keeping him warm. You're holding him. That's what counts."
She wiped her face with the back of her wrist. "Why me?"
"Because you were here. Because I drove past you earlier today and… I don't know. I felt like maybe there was a way to get through my sadness."
He took my hand and held it tightly.
For the first time I felt like someone truly understood and felt compassion for my pain.
"I felt like maybe there was a way to overcome my sadness."
We unloaded the car together.
They were constantly touching the fabric of each bodysuit as if it was going to disappear.
When I lifted the stroller box out, it made a small, intermittent sound.
"I don't know how to thank you."
"Just use them. That's all the thanks I need."
"I'm going to tell Mateo about him," she said. "Every time I push him in that stroller, I'm going to tell him that a little boy named Noah took him in the stroller."
"I don't know how to thank you."
"Thank you," I whispered.
***
I drove home feeling something almost like peace.
That night I made a normal meal and finished it.
I curled up on the couch and watched TV.
As I closed my eyes, I had no idea that my small act of charity would change the landscape of my entire neighborhood by morning.
"Thank you,"
The bell rang shortly after dawn.
I woke up on the couch with my afghan tangled around my knees.
The bell rang a second time, patient, almost apologetic.
I walked to the front door wearing yesterday's clothes.
I opened it, perhaps expecting a delivery person.
But there was no one there.
The bell rang a second time.
I went outside and almost screamed.
The grass was full of strollers.
Dozens of them, arranged in loose rows on the wet grass, their little canopies adorned with dew.
No vans, no trucks, no one is leaving on foot on the street.
Only strollers, silent, as if they grew up there overnight.
"This is impossible," I whispered.
The grass was full of strollers.
My chest tightened like it had in the hospital hallway.
I pressed hard on my chest with my hand until I could breathe again.
Then I went out into the yard.
And as I walked through the carts, I found one that sent shivers down my spine.
It was larger than the others, matte black, with its hood pulled back like a dark chapel.
There was a small box inside, with a black envelope on top.
My name was on it.
Inside was a small box.
I stepped away from it, suddenly terrified.
I got straight into one of the other carts.
It started to fall.
I quickly grabbed it… and then I noticed that it also had a box inside.
The black cart scared me, but this was different.
I opened the box it was in.
I opened the box.
