About a month later, the healthier, stronger-looking young man sat down across from Eleanor at the kitchen table with a serious expression that made her brace for bad news. Instead, he laid down crisp bills from his first honest paycheck. Seeing her smile, he began to fidget.
“I only kept a little back to buy something sweet,” he said quickly, as if apologizing. Eleanor tried to reason with him, reminding him that he would need money for winter boots and the ordinary expenses of being a young man. But he flatly refused to take the cash back, insisting that she was already providing everything he needed.
“All right,” she said at last. “Then we’ll put it away for you. Let it build up, and one day you can use it for something that matters.” After thinking it over, he separated exactly half the money and carefully tucked it into the back of the wall unit. The sight made Eleanor smile with warm nostalgia. Her own son had once done much the same thing, trying to repay small debts to his mother and quietly stashing away the rest.
Watching Elijah eat with a healthy appetite and chatter about stories from the plant, she suddenly suggested they go visit the priest who had brought them together. The boy agreed at once, and before long they were stepping through the familiar church doors. Father Michael spotted them immediately among the parishioners and came over. Taking in the two of them with one quick look, he nodded with obvious satisfaction.
“I’m very glad to see this,” he said. “Looks like grace found its way back into your home.”
“It really did,” they answered together, both of them smiling with genuine peace and gratitude.
