Skip to content 
“Oh, my God.”
He started toward the cafe.
The woman stepped in front of him. “No.”
Michael looked at her like she was insane. “Move.”
“Please.”
“That is our daughter.”
“I know who she is.”
“Then move.”
I said his name.
He looked at me.
I don’t know why, but something in the woman’s face made me stop.
She wasn’t trying to keep Nora from us forever.
She looked terrified of what would happen if we walked inside.
I asked, “Who are you?”
“My name is Elaine.”
“How do you know Nora?”
She looked toward the window.
Nora was laughing at something a customer had said.
I hadn’t heard her laugh in eight years.
Elaine lowered her voice.
“I used to run a small women’s shelter about 40 minutes from here.”
Michael and I stared at her.
Elaine continued. “Nora came to us four years ago.”
My chest tightened.
“Four years ago?”
“She was 20.”
“Where was she before that?”
Elaine closed her eyes briefly. “Stuck with a man.”
I felt sick. “What man?”
She looked at both of us. “I think we should sit down.”
We went around the side of the cafe to a small patio area where Nora couldn’t easily see us.
I hated every second of it.
I wanted to go inside.
I wanted to touch her face.
I wanted to hear her say “Mom.”
But Elaine kept saying the same thing.
“If you surprise her, she may run.”
That stopped me every time.
She said Nora had arrived at the shelter late one night.
She had no bag, no phone, and barely any money.
She had been frightened, exhausted, and very careful about what she said.
At first, she used another name.
It took weeks before she admitted she had family somewhere else.
Months after arriving, she admitted that she had disappeared as a teenager.
“She told you about us?”
“Eventually.”
“Then why didn’t you call the police?”
Elaine looked at me directly.