The Rumor Spreads
The owners find out, and Hannah is forced to choose
By Monday morning, the whole street seemed to know the secret.
Mrs. Park had told two neighbours, and they had told many more.
When Hannah arrived, Ruth was waiting with a cold, tight face.
"Is it true that you met the Grant boy?" she asked .
Hannah did not lie, and she quietly said that it was true.
Ruth was told by her friends that the two had walked by the river.
"You were seen holding an ice cream and laughing together," she said.
Ruth's voice shook with anger, but also with something like .
"If I lost you to that family, I would never myself," she said.
Then she said the words Hannah had feared the most.
Hannah was told to stop seeing Leo, or to leave the cafe.
"If I left this job, where would I go?" Hannah thought in silence.
She had loved this cafe, and she owed Ruth so much.
But the thought of never seeing Leo again felt .
"If I obeyed you, I would lose something important," she said gently.
Ruth turned away, unable to look at the young woman she loved like a daughter.
Across the street, Leo was facing the very same storm.
His father was told about the river, and his face had gone .
"You will end this foolishness today," Mr. Grant had ordered.
Both young people were caught between love and the people who raised them.
That night, no napkins crossed the quiet, empty street.
Hannah sat alone and wondered what she would do if she were braver.
She knew that a real choice could not be avoided much longer.
If she stayed silent now, she might it for the rest of her life.