“The Chance Encounter”
The bell above the door jingled as Elena stepped into the small retail shop tucked between a bakery and
a laundromat in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She had wandered in by chance, looking for a scarf to
guard against the late-autumn chill. But as her eyes scanned the aisles, they fell upon a young man at
the register, his shoulders squared yet gentle, his smile warm as he helped an elderly customer.
Her breath caught. She had never seen him in person before, but she knew. The slope of his nose,
the curve of his jaw—it was like looking at a photograph she had held onto for twenty-three years.
This was Daniel. Her son.
Elena had been only seventeen when he was born. Pressured by her family and circumstance, she’d
made the impossible choice to place him for adoption. She had followed his life only through distant
updates from the agency, then nothing at all after he turned eighteen. She had told herself she’d missed
her chance, that the door was closed. Yet here he was, folding a stack of sweaters with careful
precision, unaware of her presence.
Her legs trembled as she approached the counter. When he looked up, their eyes met, and for the first
time she saw the color she had always wondered about—hazel, flecked with gold.
“Hi,” he said, his voice steady and kind. “Can I help you find something today?”
Elena’s heart swelled. She wanted to tell him everything, but the words tangled in her throat. So she
simply nodded, her voice soft.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I think I’ve found what I’ve been looking for.”
In that quiet moment, surrounded by shelves of ordinary goods, a lost piece of her life had finally
returned.
