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determined to carry out her plan. Having made the decision gave her a sense of relief from pain. She had chosen a way out.
    It seemed very silent in the shed, and then she heard some shifting around and muffled coughing. Her curiosity got the best of her. If they were coughing, maybe whoever it was in there was sick and needed help. That hadn’t occurred to her before. She stared at the shed for long minutes, and then boldly walked up to it and knocked on the door. She wondered if it was a woman after all, although she thought she’d seen a man out of the corner of her eye, but whoever it was had moved very quickly into the shed and closed the door.
    She stood in front of the shed for a minute, then knocked cautiously on the door again. She didn’t want to pull it open and startle them. There was no answer, so she knocked a third time. She was going to offer help if the person was sick. And once she had tended to their needs, she would address her own. She had it all worked out in her head. She was a classic suicide about to happen. She knew people did things like it every day, and it no longer seemed shocking to her.
    “Are you all right?” she asked in a firm voice. There was still no answer, but as she started to walk away, a small voice finally spoke up.
    “Yeah, I’m okay.” The voice sounded very young. It could have been male or female, she couldn’t tell. Her instincts took over then, and she forgot about herself.
    “Are you cold? Do you want something to eat?” There was a long, long pause, as the person in the shed thought about it, and finally answered again.
    “No, I’m fine.” It sounded like a boy that time, and then he added, “Thank you.” Ginny smiled. Whoever it was, was polite. She started to walk away, and thought about her plan again, although the interruption had slowed her momentum and distracted her. She didn’t feel quite as determined as she had a few minutes before, but she started to walk back to the railing, wondering who was in the shed and what they were doing there, when she heard a voice in the distance behind her shout “Hey.” She turned in surprise and she saw a boy who looked about eleven or twelve in a T-shirt and torn jeans, and high-top sneakers, with his hair uncombed and a little wild. He was looking at her with wide eyes, and even from the distance she could see that they were a bright, almost electric blue in a pale light-coffee-colored face. “You got food?” he asked her, as she stood looking at him, shocked at how little he was wearing in the snow.
    “I could get some,” she answered. She knew there was a McDonald’s nearby. She bought breakfast or dinner there often herself.
    “Nah, that’s okay,” he said, looking disappointed and shivering in the cold, standing near the shed. It belonged to the city, but clearly someone had left it unlocked, and he was using it as shelter and a place to sleep.
    “I could bring you something,” she offered. He hesitated, then shook his head, and disappeared back into the shed, as Ginny went back to the railing to gaze down at the river. By then she was beginning to feel awkward about what had seemed so right only moments before. She was about to go home when he was suddenly standing beside her with his bright blue eyes and jet-black hair.
    “I could come with you,” he suggested, in answer to her earlier offer of dinner. “I’ve got money to pay.” It was a clear sign, as she looked at him, trying hard not to shiver, that she wasn’t meant to leap into the river and die that night. She was meant to feed this child instead. She started to take off her parka to offer it to him, but he bravely declined. They began walking away from the river side by side. She had intended to die moments before, as the final escape from her sorrows, in a bout of cowardice that was rare for her, and now she was going to dinner with this unknown boy.
    “There’s a McDonald’s about two blocks away,” she said to him as they