She’s in elementary school, somewhere near the middle of it, perhaps. Her hair is bright blonde and neatly trimmed. She’s sitting by two older women at Mass, the one on the far side is darling and ancient. During church, the girl writes on some worksheets. She erases, wipes the eraser remnants away, begins again. Later she shapes one sheet of paper into a cone. She takes another sheet and folds herself a set of makeshift tweezers, which she uses to drop tiny offering-envelope-pencils into the cone. She investigates the speed, the distance.

The woman in the middle gets up during Mass and departs to help with a task. The little girl sits for a while, rustles with her cone and tweezers. Then she is suddenly stricken with a thought. She drops her tools. She hustles over to the elderly woman and gives her a tight, compassionate embrace of love. The…