Benita Gualdez fell ill in the spring, was bedridden for weeks, but her mood was lightened by the sound of a robin outside her window. The robin sang to her each day as she was confined to her room, watching her friends play and the world turn without her, as spring turned to summer and summer to fall. Her strength gradually returned, until the morning she took a tentative step out into the crisp autumn air. The robin lay on her doorstep, stiff and silent, and she always wondered after that if it had given the last of its strength to her.
