It is helping them feel safe for the first time.
I first met Anna when I was seventeen.
She lived three houses down from my parents, in a small white home with blue shutters and a garden full of roses. Every morning, she walked to school with a brown leather bag hanging from her shoulder and a ribbon tied around her dark hair.
I still remember the first time she smiled at me.
I was attempting to repair the chain on my bicycle outside our house when she stopped on her way home from school.
“You know,” she said, watching me struggle, “most people take their bicycles to a repair shop.”
I looked up at her.
“Most people don’t have a beautiful girl watching them work.”
She laughed so loudly that an elderly neighbor opened her window to see what was happening.
I was embarrassed for the rest of the afternoon.
