I already sold the property. You have three days to get out. Mrs. Evelyn Carter pressed the phone to her ear. Her eyes—dimmed by years and blindness—hadn’t cried in a long time, but her hands were shaking.

“Can I take the things from my bedroom? Whatever fits in one bag?”
“Only that. The rest stays with the property,” the woman said without looking up. “Please be quick. We need measurements before dark.”

A neighbor, Mrs. Linda Harper, hurried over.

“Evelyn—what’s happening? Why are people measuring your house?”
“It was sold.”
“By who?”
“My son… the doctor.”

Linda gripped her arm. “And where is he?”
“I don’t know. The number doesn’t exist anymore.”

Evelyn left her house holding a thin plastic bag. Inside: three blouses, a skirt, a rosary, and a shoebox stuffed with papers she’d never been able to read—bills, receipts, and an old yellow envelope of documents that smelled like damp basement.

“What’s that?” Linda asked.
“My husband’s papers. I kept them when he died. I never knew what they said.”
“And Ethan never explained?”
“He never asked.”

Linda took her to her place—a cramped 10-by-10 room behind a run-down rowhouse.

“You can stay here,” Linda said. “It’s not big, but it’s a roof.”

Evelyn sat on the narrow cot, set the bag at her feet, and hugged the shoebox to her chest.

“He’ll call,” she whispered. “When he remembers me, he’ll call.”

Linda didn’t answer.