He nodded.
“I found Dad’s old toolbox.”
“It belongs to the cooperative now.”
“I know. Luis lets me use it.”
We stood in silence.
Then Marcus said, “I used to think Dad left me nothing.”
“He left you many chances.”
“I wasted them.”
“Most of them.”
He looked at me.
“Not all?”
I watched the morning light spread across the fields.
“That depends on what you do next.”
He returned to work.
Rachel completed her sentence eight months later.
She did not ask to live with me.
She moved into a small apartment and found work at a hotel laundry. After a year, she became a supervisor.
Later, she opened a modest cleaning company with two women she met in the responsibility program.
She paid her employees fairly.
She never left lists of unpaid tasks for someone else.
When she visited the farm, she brought food and asked before entering my cottage.
