The first name made me stop breathing.
Thomas.
Then I saw the surname beneath it.
My hands tightened around the file.
It could not be him.
There had to be hundreds of men with that name.
But when I raised my eyes toward the patient lying in the bed, I recognized him immediately.
Fifty-six years had passed, but they had not erased the face I remembered.
Thomas was thinner now.
His skin was pale, and illness had left deep shadows beneath his eyes.
Yet those eyes were still the same ones that had watched me board a bus all those years ago.
He looked at me and smiled as though he had been expecting me.
“Hello, Nancy,” he said softly.
For several seconds, I could not speak.
