And the thing was? It’d just so happened that he’d found himself in a world ripe with chances to pay that unseen debt. They were everywhere. I’d seen the relief on his face when he’d given the man with the baby our condensed milk. And I’d felt relief too. I’d wanted to give it to him. But for Tuck, it wasn’t just an act of kindness, it was a small step toward the redemption he was still seeking.

Only I wondered when it would be enough, wondered how many lives he’d have to save to assuage the shame and guilt he couldn’t let go of.

What I was beginning to fear—deeply—was that I wasn’t enough to convince him to give it up.

I wasn’t even sure it was right that I try. Because the world needed heroes now and their motivations didn’t much matter.

“This way,” he said, leading me toward an obviously abandoned laundromat. Only, it clearly wasn’t abandoned recently. This place had been an empty shell for quite some time—a decade at least if I had to guess. I followed Tuck to the rear, and he looked around before opening the back door and pulling me inside. The large empty space was dim and mostly empty. Any equipment had been cleared long ago, the only remnant of what it’d once been a coin machine half hanging on the wall that said, “Detergent.”

“No one’s going to come in here,” he said, turning to our right where there was a smaller room that had likely once been a manager’s office. We entered the mostly empty space, a small window high up on the wall glowing with the final rays of sunset. There was a large metal shelf on one wall, and Tuck closed the door and then pushed the shelf in front of it.

“How long has this place been abandoned?”

“It closed down a year or so after I moved here. There was a for-sale sign up on the land for years, and I think it was purchased a couple of times, but it always fell through. I don’t know why.”

I put my pack down and then sat on the floor under the window, my back propped against the wall. I took out a can of beans and peeled the top back, tipping it and pouring them into my mouth before handing the can to Tuck. “Bon appetite,” I said, attempting to make him smile.

He did, sitting down next to me and taking the can. “Are you okay?” I asked.

He was quiet as he chewed but nodded when he handed the can back to me. “I will be.”

Will you, Tuck?