The strangest relationship of my life began with a hundred-dollar bill and a birthday cake. For ten years, an elderly woman paid me to sit beside her at the same party, in the same chair, and never once explained why. When I finally learned the truth, it changed everything I thought I knew about her.
I was 18 when an elderly woman offered me $100 to attend her birthday party. At the time, I thought she was joking.
I was standing outside a grocery store, counting the coins in my pocket and trying to decide whether I could afford both bread and milk.
The woman approached slowly. Gray hair, neatly pressed clothes, kind eyes.
