Gerald requested a written report and copies of the receipts.
Curtis suddenly remembered that Nora had paid for the stew herself.
He decided to change his accusation.
By afternoon, he told the staff that Nora had abandoned her section and encouraged a disturbance.
The cook, Luis Alvarez, contradicted him in front of three coworkers.
Luis said Nora had finished every order and had taken food to the elderly man during a quiet stretch.
Curtis threatened to write him up for disrespect.
Luis took off his apron and asked whether speaking the truth had become a violation of restaurant policy.
The dishwasher, Miriam Cole, quietly saved a photograph of the shift schedule before Curtis could replace it.
She also kept the receipt showing Nora’s twelve-dollar payment.
When Nora arrived to collect her last paycheck, Curtis told her to sign a statement accepting responsibility for the incident.
Nora read the document and folded it in half.
She said she would sign only an accurate record.
Curtis warned that future employers might call him for a reference.
Nora told him that a reference obtained through intimidation would not be worth having.
She walked out holding her paycheck and a copy of the schedule.
For the first time since the snowstorm, she was afraid without feeling ashamed.
Chapter 8: The People in the Records
Nora met attorney Jasmine Ford in a small office above a pharmacy.
Jasmine represented workers in wage disputes and occasionally helped neighborhood groups obtain public records.
She examined the notebook without removing it from Nora’s hands.
She explained that an old research diary could be valuable evidence but that memories, company reports, and technical records would need separate verification.
Nora appreciated the caution.
She did not want Elise’s story transformed into a convenient accusation that would collapse under scrutiny.
Together they identified several former residents whose names appeared in the notebook.
The first was Doreen Wallace, a retired teacher who lived on the South Side.
Doreen remembered the day workers arrived to replace equipment in her building without warning.
She had asked for a notice explaining the work and received none.
Years later, she had been told that the maintenance had been routine.
When Nora showed her the date in Elise’s notebook, Doreen reached for her glasses and began to cry.
She said that the date matched a day when her husband had taken photographs of the work crew.
The photographs were still in a box beneath her television.
The second resident, Alan Pierce, remembered receiving a letter that described a temporary testing error.
