“This is Linda. The… well, she was going to be your— This is very awkward.”
Linda sounded nervous. Ashamed.
“Hello, Linda.”
“Mrs. Emily, I wanted to apologize. I did not know that Sarah had not consulted you about us living with you. I truly did not know.”
“No?”
“No, ma’am. She told us that you had insisted on us coming to live with you because you felt very lonely, that you wanted company.”
I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach.
“She told you that?”
“Yes, ma’am. That is why we accepted. We thought we were doing you a favor. When we arrived this morning and saw the house empty, and then Sarah started screaming, we realized something was not right.”
“Linda, where are you now?”
“At the house, ma’am. We do not know what to do. Robert is trying to calm Sarah down, but she is beside herself.”
“And Jessica?”
“Well, Jessica says this is very uncomfortable and we should just leave.”
“And what do you want to do, Linda?”
“We do not want to cause you problems. If you want us to leave, we will leave. We can look for another place.”
For the first time since yesterday, someone was talking to me with respect and consideration.
“Linda, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, ma’am.”
“Do you really need a place to live?”
“Yes, ma’am. We lost our apartment because the owner is going to demolish it. We have a month to find something. But with the pension we receive, it is very difficult to get something decent.”
“I understand. What Sarah did was very wrong. You had the right to decide about your own house.”
David was watching me attentively. I could see in his eyes that he was realizing something important was happening in that conversation.
“Linda, will you let me think about it?”
“Of course, ma’am. And again, I apologize for this misunderstanding.”
When I hung up, David asked me, “What are you going to do?”
“I do not know yet, but I think I am starting to understand something.”
“What?”
“That maybe the problem was not that they came to live with me. The problem was that no one asked me if I wanted to.”
David nodded slowly, as if he had been waiting for me to reach that conclusion.
“Mrs. Emily, there is a big difference between helping because one wants to and being forced to help.”
“Exactly. If Linda and Robert really need help, and if they had asked me with respect, maybe I would have said yes. But Sarah decided for me, and that is what I cannot forgive.”
“And what do you plan to do now?”
I stayed observing the pigeons. Hope had brought two others, and now all three were pecking near our feet. It was as if they had formed a small family around us.
“I think I am going to talk to Linda and Robert, but without Sarah present.”
“Seems sensible to me.”
“David, do you think I am foolish for considering helping them after everything that happened?”
“No, Mrs. Emily. I think you are being wise. You are separating the people who acted with respect from the one who did not.”
That afternoon I returned to the hotel and called Linda.
“Linda, it is Emily Johnson.”
“Mrs. Emily, how are you?”
