Chapter 24: What the Sparrow Held

We read it on the cottage porch, with our feet on the rail and the river going orange below us.

The paper had gone soft as cloth.

My mother's handwriting leaned to the right, the way it always had on my school permission slips.

My hands shook, so Tadeo held the page steady and let me read.

My darling Sera,

If you are reading this, someone I trust has brought it to you, and it is safe.

I am sorry I could not be there.

I soldered this clasp myself, badly, at the kitchen table, while your father was at the restaurant.

I wanted one thing in your life that was only yours.

Do not let anyone tell you who to hate.

Not me, not him, not the families.

Hate what they do.

Love whoever is kind to you when nobody is watching.

You were always the brave one, even when you were small.

Be braver than I was, and then be happy.

Mama

I read it twice.

Then I folded it along its old creases and held it against my chest.

I cried, quietly, for a long time.

Tadeo didn't try to stop me.

He sat with his arm along the back of my chair and his hand on my hair.

The sun slid down behind the hill.

When I could speak, I said, "Love whoever is kind to you when nobody is watching."

"She wrote that fifteen years ago."

"She couldn't have known it'd be you."

"She hoped," he said. "She smiled at me from the bottom step, Serafina. I think she hoped."

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