“There are dozens of things you could do, like handing out food in the soup kitchen or helping displaced people reunite with their families. You could help those who’ve lost everything find a reason to go on. You know what that’s like, Eloise. I know you do.”

“And what if I don’t have a reason to go on, myself?”

Ans didn’t reply. She wouldn’t offer false hope and empty words. The uphill road for Eloise was too steep. And they were both too weary. At last Ans sighed and said, “Just walk over there with me this morning. We don’t have to stay and help if you don’t want to, but the walk will do us good.”

Eloise agreed, and after finishing breakfast, they got ready to go. Ans opened the front door and was startled to see an old gray-haired beggar with stooped shoulders and ragged clothing standing in front of the house. He had a wreck of a bicycle with him, and he was staring at the muddy flower beds that should be blooming with beautiful tulips, as if wondering where they’d gone. Eloise came through the door behind her. She recognized the beggar first.

“Herman!”

He dropped the bicycle and they held each other tightly, weeping, touching each other’s faces, murmuring their love for each other, their joy. Ans watched, thanking God through her tears.

“Aren’t you going to let me inside?” the professor finally asked.

“Oh, Herman! I need to explain something first. I need to tell you what I’ve done to your beautiful home. We needed fuel, you see, to stay warm, and so the furniture and woodwork is gone. Up in smoke. But what else could I do?” Ans was overjoyed to see her friend’s fluttering hands and hear her breathless, gushing voice as she soared uphill on wings. “And food —there wasn’t any food, and no money to buy it, and there were so many people depending on me, so I had to sell some of our lovely things and —”

He put his fingers over her lips to stop her. “I don’t care about any of that. Just you.” Eloise hugged him again and then led him inside. His gaze was on her the entire time, blind to everything else. Ans decided to move the professor’s bicycle to a safer place and give them privacy, and as she was wheeling it around to the rear of the town house, she had a sudden thought. She could go home! She could ride his bicycle home to see her family!

She left early the next morning, just after the sun rose on what promised to be a beautiful Sunday morning. She pedaled so fast in her eagerness that she arrived in the village while everyone was still in church. The sanctuary was packed with people, every pew taken, so she stood in the rear to wait until the service ended.