Carrie waited three days. For three days Rose brought home sketches and scribbles from the shelter, taped them on the refrigerator door—by now she had so many she had to rotate them—and took photos to bring back to the kids. Carrie's painting stayed propped up on the chest of drawers. On the fourth day, Carrie broke down and cried. When she was told the reason why, Rose was contrite. “But Carrie, why on earth would you want to be a part of Project Fridge?” she asked. “You and I have a kitchen—and a home.” Then she added, “And you probably didn't think about this, but your painting is so big that we'd have to take down all the other children's drawings. I'm sure you wouldn't want that, would you?”

Carrie the fraud had taken a fast look at her mother's anxious frown, swallowed her tears, and said, “No. I wouldn't want that. Absolutely not.” For her lie she was rewarded with the radiant smile the shelter children got.

A week later Carrie tore up her picture and threw it into the trash can on the corner of the street. As far as Carrie could tell, her mother never realized that it was gone. Certainly, she'd never mentioned it.

THE REPORTER FROM New York magazine had finished the interview, and he was putting his tape recorder away in his bag when suddenly he turned to Carrie. And as if he'd been reading her thoughts, he said, “Carrie, what do you think about Project Fridge?”

Naturally Carrie wasn't going to tell him she'd wanted her mother to take all the other pictures off the refrigerator and put hers up.

“I think it's a wonderful thing for me to have the Project Fridge refrigerator in my house,” she said charmingly. “It reminds me of how lucky I am. Not just because of the material things I have; I'm so proud to have a mother who does so much to help people.” She could see that the reporter was impressed; he was making notes again. But her mother wasn't looking very happy. “I'm just glad I get to be a part of my mother's work.” She finished up quickly as she watched Rose.

Sure enough, after the reporter left, Rose sat on the sofa and motioned to Carrie to sit next to her. “Carrie, we need to have a talk about being in the public eye,” she said in a troubled voice. “We get attention because of the things we do, but we can't let it go to our heads. I know sometimes that's a temptation, and I think you were giving in to it just now, which is why I'm trying to warn you. We talk to the press because it's publicity for the shelter and the families. It's not about us. If we forget that, we're just on a big ego trip.”