A Small Place to Begin

The first visitor brought a lamp. The second brought a coat. Rina could fix neither alone. She put a note in the window asking for neighbors who knew more than she did.

By noon, a retired electrician had repaired the lamp. A woman upstairs had found matching thread for the coat. Two children watched Rina replace a zip and treated the result as a miracle.

At the end of the day, somebody asked when they could come again. Rina had expected gratitude, or nothing. She had not prepared for a next Saturday.

At home, her father asked whether this was a business. She said it might become one. Then, more honestly, she said it was the first thing she had wanted to do in months.