Epilogue

Philadelphia 1958

I teared up, watching Felipe throw his cap in the air. Thanks to winning a full-ride scholarship from the Pacific Northwest Trust, he'd just gotten his medical degree. I couldn't help but think of the scrawny busboy he'd been when we first met.

I remembered the day I'd asked him to move in with me. It was, what, nine or ten years ago now? My joints were creaking as I stood and made my way down the auditorium steps to reach the boy – no, man – who had become a son to me.

His fiancée was a step behind me. When we reached him he threw his arms around both of us.

"How are my girls?" he asked. Janice beamed up at him. I smiled just as broadly.

"We're so proud of you, Felipe." I couldn't help sniffling a little. "You've done well for yourself."

"All thanks to you, Mamita," he said, kissing me on my cheek.

The three of us started walking toward the exit, moving together like some six-legged beast. Janice was talking a mile a minute and Felipe was listening with a smile on his face when I caught sight of her. I stopped in my tracks.

"What is it, Mariah?" Felipe asked. His dark eyes looked down at me with concern.

"I think I saw someone I know. You go on, I'm going to go say hello." He gave me a dubious look, but I waved him off. "I'll meet you at the car in a few minutes."

She sat in the front row of the quickly emptying auditorium. Sitting behind her was the tall man from the diner and another couple, a stunning blond woman dressed like something out of Harper's or Vogue and a big bear of a man. All of them had the same amber eyes, pale skin and dark circles under their eyes that Alice did. The three others were talking, but she was just watching me.

I walked over. If I'd ever doubted my memories of her – of that night – her appearance here banished that doubt. She hadn't changed at all. Her hair was still short with black spikes sticking out at all angles. Her face was unlined and her eyes were that same astonishing golden brown. I self-consciously touched my own face, even more wrinkled now than when I'd first met her.

"He's going to be a doctor," I said.

She smiled. The others stopped talking and stared at me. I felt somewhat like a bug trapped under a microscope with their stares on me, but I tried to ignore them and focus on her.

"I told you he'd be something special."

"I'm glad you came. I suppose you're living somewhere in the northwest these days?" I raised an eyebrow.

She laughed. It was like crystals tinkling, and I noticed a few heads around us turn to look.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"There aren't exactly a lot of full scholarships that go looking for poor Puerto Rican kids. I had the feeling that it had something to do with you. But since I could never afford to send him to this place on my own, I figured I wouldn't argue."

She laughed again.

"It's time to go, Alice," the bombshell blond said.

She was leaving already? I felt the words that had been locked up for ten years welling up out of me.

"Thank you for what you did, Alice. You changed my life. You did more than just save my life that night." I looked over to the door Felipe had gone through a few minutes ago. "You gave me a family. I hope life has been as good to you."

"It has." She smiled fondly at the tall man. They shared a look so full of love I felt myself blush at its intensity. "I got my family, too."

She stood up and came down the steps to stand face to face with me. She was still as short as I remembered. She embraced me gently, and I felt again the icy cold of her skin.

She turned away and hurried back to the others, joining them as they walked away from me. Just before they left through the back exit, Alice turned again and waved. I waved back.

I wondered what my life would be like today if it hadn't been for her, if I'd even have been alive. Truly, Alice had made all the difference.