The Red Sock

Rosa lives on the second floor of an old building in Chicago. The building has one washing machine. It is in a small, cold room on the first floor.

Every Tuesday, Rosa washes her clothes there. One Tuesday, she finds a red sock in her clothes. It is big. It is not her sock.

She leaves the sock on the machine with a note. "Is this your sock? Rosa, floor 2."

The next Tuesday, the sock is not there. But there is a new note. "Yes! Thank you. Sorry! Sam, floor 5."

Rosa is happy. She leaves a note for him too. "Hi, Sam. Why red?"

Sam's next note says, "Red socks make me happy. What makes you happy?"

Now the notes come every week. Sam likes old books and green tea. Rosa likes music and the park. There are often little pictures of dogs on his notes. She keeps them all in a box.

But there is a problem. Rosa and Sam never meet. She works in an office during the day. Sam works at night.

One Tuesday, she leaves a short note. "Coffee? Saturday, ten in the morning, the Luna coffee shop."

All week, no note comes. Nothing.

On Saturday, Rosa is at the Luna coffee shop. It is ten. Then it is ten twenty. She feels sad.

Then a big man comes in. He has kind eyes. He looks at Rosa and smiles. He comes to her table.

He doesn't say a word. He just looks at his feet. Rosa looks at them too. His socks are red.

"Hi, Rosa," he says. "I'm Sam."