The Sweeper

A litigation partner at a top Boston firm still hears the sound of her mother's broom on wet pavement — the sound that raised her, shamed her, and never let her go. At twenty-five, at the height of her career, Darlene does something no one can explain: she takes a secret job sweeping a harbor town's streets before dawn. Decades later, one word shouted by a laughing child reaches all the way down to where that sound has been waiting.