“Yo, Dean, how ya doin’?” Eddie said, shuffling up the sidewalk with a glass container I recognized. “Just the man I was looking for.”

“What’s up?” I said, still out of breath. “You all right?”

“Me? I’m swell. I’m on my way to Edna’s house, bringing some of the leftovers Midge dropped off last night.”

“Edna Kozlowski?” I asked.

“The one and only.” He indicated I should follow him down the block. I did, too out of it to ask where we were going. “I saw her sister at the Acme, and she mentioned Edna was feeling a little under the weather. So thought I’d share some of this delicious spaghetti and meatballs with her.”

“Do you want me to carry it for you?” I asked.

He waved his hand. “Nah, I got it.”

I shoved my hands into my pockets and studied the profile of a man I had known my entire life. He and Alice had always been my family, not only my neighbors. One of the mornings when I was still in the hospital, I’d woken up to Eddie scowling at the paper he was reading while slurping coffee from a Styrofoam cup. He didn’t say anything, just let me rest while patting my hand every few minutes as if he knew I needed the reassurance. He didn’t have much—if any—to share, but the little he did went to feed a feral cat and other neighbors who needed cheering up.

“That’s nice of you to stop by,” I said. “Do you know if there are other times she needs help?”

He frowned. “Things probably get tight for her at the end of the month like it does for most of us, I’m guessing. I hear about it from her sister ’cause she works the deli at the Acme. And I hear about if her sister needs help from seeing Edna at church. Now, if they were both not at church, you’d know somethin’s up with the Kozlowski sisters. But they’re about as tough as your parents are, so they ain’t going nowhere.”

I smiled down at my feet. “Folks keep an eye on each other around here.”

He scoffed. “Growing up, wasn’t like we had—what is it that Tabitha did, a GoFundMe page? You just had to go around and ask people if they needed help and then believe their answer.”

“Like when you helped me,” I said. “When I was kicking around after retirement, not sure who I was, you let me take over your handyman clients.”