"Hello, hello!" an animated voice greeted. Rae turned her head almost immediately. The drawn-out pronunciation of its vowels caught her attention. It was familiar. She knew to whom that sweet drawl belonged to; a resident she saw every time she was assigned to walk through this route, and talked to on the occasion. It was about time she heard it that day, she almost wondered if anything had happened to the poor little resident. "Good afternoon mail-lady." An elderly Black woman with a kindhearted smile waved at Rae from her porch. "You missed me darling."

"Ah! My apologies ma'am, and... good morning, er, afternoon to you too!" Rae blurted. Heat rushed to her cheeks as she dragged herself and her faulty mail cart past all the grime and snow before the resident's home, and onto the entrance of their porch. Rae then skimmed through the dozens of names on the mail in her hands, made sure to keep her head down. "Isabelle... Sánchez, right?"

Miss Sánchez hummed to herself before she replied to Rae. "Mhmm. Head in the clouds, eh? Tired?"

"Uh, yes," Rae muttered. She found two letters with Miss Sánchez's name and handed them over to her. "Just a little."

As always, Miss Sánchez was in no rush, so she left Rae's hand hanging in the air and kept her own in the pockets of her long puffer jacket. "Hmm." After two seconds passed without either of them making a move, Rae licked her lips and put her hand down. "Would you like some tea?"

"That's so kind of you ma'am," Rae began, "but no thank you. I'm alright. I'll stop by the corner store and get myself one there."

"You don't look good darling, you should take a breather now rather than later," Miss Sánchez said. "Sit down here on the steps. Take a five minute break. What's the harm in that?"

"Ma'am── "

"Hold on just a moment, I'll go inside and serve you a cup."

"Ma'am... !"

"Sit down darling, I'll be quick."

Before Rae could say anything else to her, Miss Sánchez went inside the house. Rae sighed and let her shoulders drop. "If you insist," she mumbled to herself.

She looked over her shoulders, as if her boss would somehow see what she was about to do, then walked past the gate of Miss Sánchez's home and brushed off some snow from the left corner of its steps. She sat herself there, indulged herself in the tranquil mundanity that followed, watched her surroundings; the dog walker picking up dog poop on the other side of the street, the cars that passed by, the barren trees whose skinny branches were teased by the wind. The coat of dirty snow that covered the block, in particular. It had just snowed the day before, why couldn't urban cities go easy on the waste it spit on the ground for at least a day, so that it could look like an actual winter wonderland for once? Mind you, she thought of that while gripping onto the handle of her mail cart, while she absent-mindedly rolled its filthy wheels on the fresh white snow in Miss Sánchez's property.

A hand came into existence near Rae's shoulder, handed her a warm styrofoam cup. "Here you go," its owner said.

"That was quick," Rae gasped.

When Rae grabbed the cup, Miss Sánchez finally got her mail. Fair exchange, I guess.

Miss Sánchez snorted as she settled onto the rocking chair on her porch. "I wasn't kidding when I said I would be quick."

Once Miss Sánchez's butt was snug on the chair, she promptly began to rock away. The chair groaned and creaked louder than the creepy floors of Hollywood's most infamous haunted house movies, and yet, it was somehow the most comforting thing for Rae to hear. It reminded her of when she was younger, of the days where the only things on her mind were memorizing the ABCs and beating her competitive cousins on their favorite game to play when they were all at their grandmothers' house. Their grandmother used to have a worn-out rocking chair that would creak like a motherfucker all day every day, similar to Miss Sánchez's. For a brief second, Rae wondered if the chair was still around, if her grandmother was still around. For either one, she might never know.

Rae traced the rim of her cup and allowed the steam that came out of it to touch her face. Its warmth caressed her flushed cheeks, poked the frozen tip of her nose, gave her cold hands some mobility.

"I don't have any sugar on me right now, so I put honey in your tea. I hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Rae quickly replied. A small smile crossed her face. She saw it form from her tea's surface, gave it a little encouragement. "I prefer it like this, actually. Thank you ma'am."

"You're welcome darling."

Rae closed her eyes and took her first sip. The first thing she tasted was bliss. The second, a mix of ginger and gentle warmth. And third, a hint of lemon── a 'hint' that gave itself away with the tea's overall tangy aroma. With every sip, Rae's heart fluttered. Out of pure chance, she sat on an acquaintance's steps and drank her favorite type of tea. The only thing that was missing was the pinch of brown sugar and half a cup of almond milk, but that was something that only Rae and Amaya knew. It didn't need to be in her cup right now for her to be happy. Pleasant memories flowed into her mind and soul, combined with the cozy present, and painted the multitudes of futures that Rae dreamed of. Her heart was undeniably full. The world was being awfully kind to her. Was something bad going to happen soon?

"Thank you for sitting here with me," Miss Sánchez said. "I know you have a route to finish and I basically pushed you into this── "

"Ma'am you didn't── "

"Let me finish, darling," Miss Sánchez hummed. She picked up the first letter from her lap and tore it open, skimmed it as she sipped from her old tin mug. "I don't get much company. My kids come every so often with the grandkids and they're my favorite days to be around, but most of the days, I'm... just here. Flipping through the channels and watching cars pass by." Miss Sánchez smacked her lips after her last sip, and stopped rocking her chair. Her weight still kept the chair going, but it was at a much slower pace. Its groans and creaks almost matched Miss Sánchez's sweet drawl. "Do you have children?"

"I have one," Rae replied. "Eight years old. Turning nine next month."

"Oh how wonderful. That's when they start to talk back." Miss Sánchez chuckled. "Set that kid straight as soon as it happens."

"Yes ma'am."

"That's when all of mine started to look around, too. When they started to ask questions," the old woman sighed. She took her time to rub an eye before continuing. "Questions like who's my daddy? where's my daddy? why can't I get that toy or those shoes? why can't we get a bigger house? and the worst ones; why do you cry at night? where are your friends, mommy? are you lonely?" Miss Sánchez paused to look down at her feet, gave Rae some time to let her words sink in. "Us women, we face Hell. The men walk out whenever they want, but we're here, stuck, forced to pick up the broken pieces and with mouths to feed. We forget ourselves in the process, as we put it all on our shoulders, who we are as individuals, and when we happen to not forget we're shackled by the values that we deem as noble── sacrifice, self-neglect, pressure by our family, our peers, and as a direct result, ourselves── it's off the charts. Off the charts, I tell you." Miss Sánchez leaned a little to her right, where Rae sat and quietly drank her tea. "Here's the thing... the catch, per se; though it might take them a while to understand, kids see it all, and what do you think they learn out of it?"

It took Rae a whole three seconds for her to blink, not to mention realize that the question the older woman had asked wasn't rhetorical, but by the time she recognized it for what it was, Miss Sánchez had already shaken her head and provided the answer herself: "The kids will believe that their happiness isn't the point of life, but rather, that someone else's happiness is, aside from a million other harmful things." Miss Sánchez clasped her hands together. "Think about it, just think about it, and tell me if I'm wrong." When silence responded, Miss Sánchez nodded to herself and squeezed her hands. "I see it in both of my daughters. I see it in my son."

For a second, only the slow movements of the chair and the faint howls of the wind were heard. It allowed for Rae to step out of the moment, to dwell on all that she had heard.

Every word that had come out of the elderly woman felt like a punch to her gut, a direct commentary on her life. As if it were done by the work of some being greater than anything she could remotely wrap her head around.

There was a lot to unpack from what was said, and almost all of it made Rae's throat feel as dry as the Sahara Desert, so she drank from what she held in her hands. The smooth, thin contents of the cup soothed her throat, and before she knew it, she emptied it long before she had even tipped the cup backwards.

Rae pursed her lips and stared at the bottom of the styrofoam. Only a droplet of tea remained in there, a stubborn one that refused to go down with the rest. It was the smallest portion of itself, still potent in flavor. She wanted it── she knew that it would still be a delight to have. But it didn't want to move anywhere save for the dent in the cup, and somehow, she understood. Somehow, she felt as if she was looking at herself rather than looking at a mere drop of honeyed ginger and lemon tea.

The thought tugged at the strings of her heart, whispered to her in a language her soul was fluent on; a language that her mind was wary of.

"Do you know what I told my kids when they asked me if I'm lonely, back when they were young── like, what, ten, eleven?" Miss Sánchez's voice asked. Rae turned to meet the older woman's eyes, but the intensity in them was so strong that she shifted her attention to the creases around them. "I told them I wasn't lonely. That they were all I needed in the whole wide world." Silence. "I love my kids to death, I would die for them. I turned my life around for them. I followed the so-called noble code for them, let go of everything that made me the individual that was Isabelle Macarena Sanchez." Rae watched the older woman tilt her head to her side, sniffle as she reached for the second letter on her lap. "I distracted myself with the kids from the truth I knew deep down, and once they grew up, moved out and got lives of their own, I was forced to come face to face with it. I found myself realizing that I had nothing to do. I had given so much of myself to them that once they were gone, I had no other purpose in life. A mother was all I was, all I am."

Rae's eyes stung her, bitterly. Miss Sánchez's words stung her, bitterly. "Ma'am... " Rae heard herself mumble.

Miss Sánchez waved a hand at Rae, shook her head. "My kids saw it, they knew. They might have not understood it, but they knew. That's why they asked me if I was lonely." Silence, with the occasional sniffle. "I was able to distract myself with them and say no, but now that I only have time for myself, now that I have no idea how to make the best of it, I can no longer keep myself distracted from the truth. I'm all alone in this house. I'm lonely. I can't spend time with myself, because I don't know me. I don't remember me. And friends? Oh, friends. I don't have them here, they're all in Florida, where I'm from. Can't make new ones either in this here city, nobody sits outside like me. Nobody greets their neighbor, nobody watches out for them. This ain't goddamn Florida. All I got is the mail-lady who pities me."

"Ma'am, that's not── "

"It's fine, darling," Miss Sánchez croaked. "It's fine."

Miss Sánchez opened up her second letter and unlike the last letter, she took her time to read it.

Rae remained on the steps, watched her surroundings yet again. In spite of all the minute differences, everything was essentially the same; a dog walker stood nearby, on the other side of the street, waiting for two dogs to finish their business. Cars and trucks alike drove by. The skinny branches of the barren trees on the sidewalk rattled awkwardly, thanks to the wind.

All was essentially the same save for the coat of snow on the block. It was just as dirty as before, if not more, but something about it stood out now. It glowed── no, it sparkled.

It was a gray, cloudy day. A day after heavy snowfall, as a matter of fact. The weather forecast on Rae's smartphone predicted that there would be a sixty-percent chance of snowfall that day, too. There should have been no sun out in the open to make the snow sparkle as bright as it was, or sparkle at all.

Rae snapped her head up to the sky, and as soon as she saw a sliver of baby blue amidst all the gray, her jaw dropped. The sun's ray's escaped from that one drop of blue in the sky, kissed the ice-cold snow with its warmth, made it shine bright. A squeak escaped Rae.

"Thank you," Miss Sánchez said, all of a sudden. Rae didn't have to look back down at Earth to know Miss Sánchez's eyes were on her. Rae felt their presence on her. "I got carried away, but thank you for listening. I hope you were able to rest in one way or another, despite my rambling."

"No," Rae replied. Her voice almost cracked at that, but she managed to keep it leveled enough to get her one word across. "Thank you." Rae took in the deepest breath her lungs could handle, held it in for what felt like forever. When she let it go, her heart, soul, and mind became one. A stray tear rolled down her cheek. "Ma'am, if it's alright with you, can I have another cup of tea, please?"

Miss Sánchez stood up from the rocking chair and patted Rae's back. "Sure, darling."

For the first time in forever, Rae clasped her chest, followed the rhythm of the part of her that gave her life. She followed the beat with a soft hum.