The work was honest and never glamorous. I cleaned a house large enough to swallow sound. The owner, Mr. Hale, was rarely home. His daughter, Vivienne, was there enough for both of them. She called me slow. She called me lucky. She liked to mention that one complaint would put me back on the bus. I needed the checks for my mother’s medicine, so I folded the words and kept moving.

That afternoon she brought friends into the sunroom. They laughed when I bent for glasses. One of them tipped a cup as if it were a trick. Coffee ran down my sleeve and across my collar. I stood still because dignity was the only thing I could still hold. Then the room went quiet. Someone gasped. Vivienne’s voice cut the air. Where did you get this. It is impossible. You—