“Stay and Soothe My Son,” the Widower Pleaded… She Never Imagined What Would Come Next

Chapter 2

Ezequiel stood staring at the scene, unable to say anything. There was something in the way that woman held his son that made him feel, for the first time in weeks, that perhaps he was not as alone as he had thought.

“Thank you,” he said at last, his voice broken by contained emotion. “I don’t know how you did it. He’d been like that for hours.”

“Children feel when someone is calm,” she replied, still rocking him slowly. “Sometimes they just need that — someone who isn’t in a hurry.”

Ezequiel observed her more carefully now. The tired, dark eyes, but full of a sweetness that contrasted with the evident weight of her journey. He wondered what could have brought her there. Alone, at those hours, with no apparent place to go.