Linda held out the bag.
Inside was a red hair ribbon.
“I thought it might match her dress.”
Sophie immediately tried to put it in her mouth.
Jenna laughed.
“That means she likes it.”
Linda laughed too.
Then something happened I’ll never forget.
Sophie reached for her.
Linda hesitated.
Then took her.
Sophie grabbed Linda’s necklace.
“Strong,” Linda said.
“She is,” Jenna replied.
That might have been the end of it.
Except Linda began visiting.
At first, she pretended she was just stopping by to see us.
Then somehow she always ended up next door.
Three months later, she volunteered at a local parent-support organization.
People do not always change because someone shames them.
Sometimes they change because they finally see the person their assumptions had hidden.
By spring, life had mostly returned to normal.
Or as normal as life gets after your seven-year-old becomes known around town as “the red dress kid.”
Then Walter disappeared.
He missed a Red Lunchbox Fund meeting.
He didn’t answer his phone.
He wasn’t at the hospital.
Caleb became worried.
Two days later, a letter arrived at our house.
The return address was Walter’s.
Inside was a key.
And one sentence:
Caleb, there’s one last lunchbox I need you to open.
PART 8 — WALTER’S LAST LUNCHBOX
I called Walter immediately.
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
My heart was pounding.
Then Jenna came running over.
“Did you get one too?”
She held up an envelope.
Hers contained an address.
Bennett’s Grill.
The old restaurant.
Walter’s restaurant had been closed for more than a year.
We drove there.
Caleb sat silently in the backseat clutching the key.
When we arrived, Walter’s truck was parked outside.
“Walter?”
I nearly shouted his name as we unlocked the front door.
The dining room was dark.
Chairs were stacked upside down on tables.
Dust floated through narrow beams of sunlight.
Then the lights turned on.
“Surprise!”
Caleb screamed.
I screamed.
Jenna nearly dropped her purse.
Walter stood near the old counter.
Beside him were Officer Reeves, Principal Dawson, Rachel, Linda, several teachers, neighbors, and at least twenty children.
“You are in so much trouble,” I told Walter.
He laughed.
“I’ve heard that before.”
Caleb punched him lightly in the arm.
“I thought you died!”
Walter stopped laughing.
“Oh.”
He crouched.
“I’m very sorry about that.”
