The day after the snow stopped, school remained closed, but volunteer work went on as usual.
Last night, Dick had sent eleven messages in a row to their secret three-person group chat.
The first eight explained that the Community Center was short-handed, the ninth said lunch would be provided, and the tenth promised there would be no heavy lifting.
The eleventh contained just four words.
Please, I beg you.
In their great kindness, Chen Mo and Barbara had ultimately spared Dick from kneeling down, calling them Dad and Mom, and begging them to come.
Ah, that was how it went. Friends stuck together for life.
At eight twenty that morning, Chen Mo and Barbara met Dick at the Old Town intersection.
He had three Volunteer Badges hanging around his neck, registration forms in his arms, and a bulging cloth bag slung over his shoulder. When he saw the two approaching, he immediately handed over two of the badges.
"Thank you."
Chen Mo took his and hung it around his neck.
"That was a very solemn thank-you. Last night, I almost thought your twelfth message would be a live performance of you crying."
"I considered it." Dick stuffed the registration forms back into his bag. "Barbara agreed first."
Barbara put on her Volunteer Badge, then straightened the one sitting crookedly on Chen Mo's chest.
"You weren't exactly slow to agree either."
"That was because I saw someone offering to buy me lunch."
The three walked toward the Community Center along a sidewalk that had yet to be fully cleared of snow. Car tires had compressed the roadside snow into blackish gray, and shopkeepers were shoveling ice outside their doors. Walking between them, Dick tried several times to speak, only to swallow his words.
Chen Mo noticed, but did not ask yet.