The rhythmic drumming of a cold December rain against the kitchen window pane provided a somber soundtrack to an otherwise quiet Tuesday evening. I was standing at the stove, lost in the simple, meditative act of stirring a pot of vegetable soup, when the front door burst open with a suddenness that made me jump. My husband, Arthur, stood in the entryway, shedding a drenched overcoat and shivering against the intrusive draft. Usually, Arthur was the soul of predictability, but the look on his face tonight was a jarring mixture of physical exhaustion and a deep, gnawing concern that I couldn’t immediately place.
“Sarah, you won’t believe the day I’ve had,” he began, his voice strained and slightly breathless. He gestured toward the shadows of the porch. “There’s someone outside. An older woman named Eleanor. I couldn’t just leave her there.”
I set down my ladle, feeling that familiar, slightly apprehensive flutter in my chest. Arthur was a man of immense empathy, the kind of person who “collected” souls in need—be they injured birds or, as it appeared tonight, stranded travelers. He quickly explained the situation: a cascade of flight delays and cancellations at the airport had left the terminal in a state of chaotic misery. In the midst of the frustration, he had spotted Eleanor, a frail, diminutive woman sitting alone on a hard plastic bench, looking utterly untethered from the world. Her connecting flight to Massachusetts had been scrapped, her phone had died, and the airline’s only solution was a voucher for a hotel miles away that required a shuttle she was too exhausted to navigate.
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