Wash Her Feet novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Names

"Yes," I said.

He had asked me in my father's kitchen, and I answered in it, before he could take his hands from my face.

"Yes. I'll stay."

He let out a long unsteady breath, and kissed me again, shorter this time.

That was five weeks ago.

Now I stood in the weeds of an empty lot on a cold bright Saturday and held a paper cup of coffee with both hands.

The chain-link fence was gone.

Rafe and nine men from his crew had cut it down on a Sunday and hauled it away.

They had cleared the weeds in rows, poured a low stone base and set a gray granite wall on it, taller than a man and wide as a garage door.

It was covered with a black cloth.

I had never seen so many people in a place that used to be forgotten.

There were close to two hundred.

They stood on the new gravel in coats and good shoes, and some held babies and some held photographs.

The lawyer's office had found all twenty-two families from the building, and some of them were here.

Eleven had come from other states.

One old man had driven nine hours in a pickup with his wife's ashes in a coffee can on the seat, because she had lived on the third floor and had always said somebody would answer for it.

I had met him that morning at the gate.

I had told him who I was.

He had looked at me for a long time, and then he had taken off his hat.

"You're the girl on the television," he said. "You said it before they could."

"Yes, sir."

"My wife would have liked that."

I did not trust my voice, so I nodded.

Now he stood three rows back, with the hat in his hands.

The Bradstreet house had a buyer, a young couple with a baby, and it would close on Monday.

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