Social distancing has provided him with an unexpected opportunity: a little house-cleaning.
In the attic, brushing aside dust and cobwebs, he discovers an old briefcase.
He opens it to find pieces of paper with words written on them, in a child’s scrawl. 1/
He flips through them, glimpsing words here and there.
“HELLO”
“YES I DO”
“SICK?”
The last one is smudged, as if water spilled on it.
He looks upon it, and wonders... 2/
A little boy, Arthur, lives with his father in an apartment building in New York. His father is a doctor.
These are strange times.
Arthur doesn’t know exactly why he can’t go out to play, but he has been confined to the apartment for a week now. 3/
Arthur is supposed to study and review his work with his father when he returns.
But he gets bored quickly. He plays with his toys. He reads.
He daydreams. 4/
In the building across from his, a little girl is sitting by her window and looking down at something.
Reading perhaps? 5/
He feels a wave of shyness but his loneliness overwhelms it.
He starts knocking on his window but it is nailed shut, and she is too far away to hear. 6/
He holds the sheet of paper up to the glass and waves wildly.
The little girl keeps looking down, and he thinks perhaps she won’t see him.
But then she looks up. 7/
She disappears from her window, and he presses his face to the glass, nose squished, wondering where she went.
A few moments later, she returns. 8/
“Hello, who are you?”
Thrilled with the prospect of interacting with another human being, never mind one with lovely strawberry blonde hair, he writes feverishly. 9/
I’m Adeline Miller.
I LIKE THE YANKEES.
I like to read.
ME TOO! WHAT BOOKS?
Little Women. You?
SHERLOCK HOMES.
It’s Holmes, with an L.
I KNEW THAT!
He laughs, and she smiles, before waving goodbye and disappearing from the window. 10/
Arthur tells him about his new friend.
His father smiles, and says that’s wonderful. He then opens his newspaper, and says nothing more.
Arthur isn’t allowed to read the paper. 11/
Arthur sees his father’s shoulders shake gently, and he knows he’s crying.
Arthur wonders if the tears are for his mother. Perhaps they’re for the sick people. 12/
“Goodnight!”
Arthur smiles, lying back. His heart is beating fast.
When his mother was alive, she would read stories to him.
Now he’s writing his own story. 13/
He learns about her.
Both her parents are alive. She has a younger brother named Bobby. She wants to learn ballet.
She loves the color purple, and marigolds.
He tells her his hopes and dreams. 14/
One day his father brings him a stack of blank papers. Arthur is overjoyed.
He and Adeline promise each other that they will meet someday soon, when the sickness is all over.
Plans are made. 15/
Her eyes are dull, like a light has gone out inside her, dark circles beneath them.
“Sorry Arthur,” her note says, “too tired today.” 16/
SICK?
The little girl doesn’t write back.
She looks at him, across the space between them, and nods sadly.
Arthur feels a hot rush of tears. 17/
For the first time in weeks, he doesn’t know what to write. He bites his lip and looks back to her, tears streaming.
She smiles wistfully, mouthing words to him slowly.
“I’m sorry, Arthur.” 18/
YOU WILL GET BETTER.
She nods slowly.
His lower lip is quivering, as he writes again.
I WILL MISS YOU.
She smiles sadly at this, and mouths to him again. “Thank you.”
Leaning forward, she kisses the glass lightly, before she leaves. 19/
When his father gets home that evening, he immediately asks what’s wrong.
Arthur flings himself into his father’s arms, and sobs as he tells him what happened.
His father rubs his back reassuringly, then sets him down and looks into his eyes. 20/
The world is changing Arthur. Adeline is a good girl, a strong kid.
I’m so sorry this happened, but we must keep moving forward.” 21/
“You know Arthur, when your mom died, I thought the sun would never rise for me again. But I have you, and I see her in you, every day.
When the sickness hit this city, I thought the world was ending. But it didn’t.” 22/
All we have in these times is each other.
So keep your faith, good King Arthur. I just know you’ll see Adeline again, somehow.”
Arthur hugs him tight. 23/
He keeps a vigil at his window daily, but Adeline doesn’t return.
Then, one day, Arthur’s father doesn’t come home. The little boy is brave and makes his own dinner.
But his heart is pounding.
He doesn’t sleep. 24/
Arthur is panicked. He is out of food. He doesn’t know where to go.
He weeps, in his bed.
That evening, there’s a loud knock at the door. A man and woman are there when he opens it. 25/
He’s going to live with them now.
Arthur knows in his heart that his father is gone forever.
The little boy now feels truly alone. 26/
Arthur grows up under the care of his aunt and uncle.
Finally, one day, he journeys back to the city. There is one thought that has lingered within him for all these years.
One hope that still burns brightly.
He makes inquiries. 27/
He spends several days asking around town, and then he finally finds the Millers.
It’s a small house, meticulously well-kept.
He stands on the street outside, his heart beating fast, his mind racing. 28/
Maybe it’s better not to know.
And then he sees her.
Unmistakable.
Her face, behind a window on the second floor, framed by long strawberry blonde hair. 29/
She flings open the window, and he hears her voice for the very first time.
“Arthur Gates! Is it really you?”
He smiles, and holds up a bouquet of marigolds. 30/
He looks down at the papers, wondering what they mean. His wife comes up behind him and asks if they’re junk.
He says yes... but something tells him to hold onto them.
His wife quirks a brow, but he can’t explain it.
He puts the papers back in the briefcase. 31/
It’s his great grandparents, Arty and Addy.
He feels ... moved.
His phone buzzes. A message from his wife downstairs: “Hola! Coming down?”
A digital note pressed to a digital window.
He smiles.