The phrase landed like a stone amidst the gleaming marble of the entrance.

-That’s what it will be like.

And that same night, before the first investor arrived, he had the mansion’s main gate opened. Then he went out himself with a pitcher of water and placed it outside, next to the sidewalk, with a simple sign written in his own handwriting:

“Here, no one will ever be turned away again for being thirsty.”

Teresa saw him from the doorway.

For the first time all afternoon, she smiled.

It wasn’t a big smile. It was barely a pause.

As if, after twenty-seven years, the river had finally begun to recede.