Chapter 1 - The Runaway Toddlers
The cold afternoon wind swept across the ancient stones of the piazza.
Pigeon wings fluttered against the gray, heavy sky.
The three little girls ran before their parents could stop them.
Tiny shoes slapped against the wet cobblestones.
Pale blue dresses fluttered in the cold afternoon air.
Tourists turned.
Café cups paused halfway to lips.
Across the piazza, an elderly woman sat alone on the stone steps in torn earth-colored clothes.
Her gray hair was messy, blowing wildly across her face.
Her eyes were lowered to the ground, like she had stopped expecting anyone in the world to see her.
She didn’t notice the children until they crashed into her arms.
One climbed straight onto her lap, ignoring the dirt on her skirt.
One wrapped both tiny arms around her thin, shivering neck.
The third buried her face into the woman’s worn coat like she had finally found home.
The elderly woman froze.
Her hands hovered in the air, trembling, afraid to touch them, afraid they would vanish.
Then one little girl patted her dirty cheek with a warm, soft hand.
The woman’s face broke, her lips trembling.
Behind them, the mother stopped so hard she gasped, her boots skidding on the stone.
“Oh my God.”
The father arrived beside her, breathless, confused, his hands half-raised in warning.
“What is happening?”
The toddlers only held the old woman tighter, their small fingers gripping her ragged clothes.
One whispered something into her ear, a soft, secret murmur.
The woman closed her eyes like the words had opened an old, bleeding wound.
The mother stepped closer, her voice barely working, her heart hammering against her ribs.
“How do they know you?”
The elderly woman looked up slowly, tears running down her deeply wrinkled face.
May you like
Then she whispered,
“They have my daughter’s eyes.”
