“Even if I don’t have any money?”
“Especially then.”
Eli threw his arms around me before running toward the car, excited about new shoes and the possibility of ice cream afterward. Watching him through the window, I realized that although his confidence was still healing, something important had changed.
Three months earlier, he had been counting his savings and asking how much longer he could stay. That afternoon, he was simply waiting for his mother to take him shopping, exactly where he belonged.
