An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny

The author feels awkward at her McDonald’s lunch with this tiny stranger. She watches him eat ravenously, wolfing down his food. She then realizes that this might be the first time Maurice has eaten in a while. She notices other details about him as well, such as his general reticence to speak. While he answers her questions, Maurice is careful not to give up many personal details about his life. It occurs to Schroff that Maurice might be guarded about adults, especially white adults, because he is worried about intervention services targeting his family. In addition to noticing his quietude, Schroff also realizes that Maurice is carrying a small razor blade, a box cutter shoplifted from a hardware store, in his pants pocket. It is astonishing to her to think a boy his age and size could be armed with a weapon.

Their meal is pleasant, with Schroff doing most of the talking. She tries to explain her job in advertising to him. She tells him where she lives and is surprised to find that he lives just a few blocks away at a welfare hotel. After eating, they decide to take a walk in Central Park, where Schroff delights Maurice with the simple treat of an ice cream cone. She gives him a quarter to play a video game at the arcade, then the two part ways. Before they do, Schroff gives Maurice her business card, saying if he’s hungry he should give her a call, as she would be happy to buy him lunch again. Unbeknownst to Schroff on, Maurice tosses her business card in the nearest trashcan.

The author also folds into this chapter some important revelations about Maurice’s life that she gradually learns later—namely, the details about his parents and their relationship. Maurice’s father and mother were both gang members, his father being an especially accomplished and notorious thief and fighter. Among the people he most viciously beat on a regular basis were his wife Darcella, his daughters, Celeste and LaToya, and his namesake son. Darcella tried to escape the abusive relationship, but Maurice’s father tracked them down. When he did, Darcella stabbed him with a kitchen knife in front of her three children.

Schroff tells her co-workers about her lunch with Maurice. They congratulate her on her kindness but don’t seem to think much of it. Schroff, however, finds she cannot get Maurice out of her head. She wonders what he’s up to now and what forces brought him to that corner to be begging for spare change. Thinking about his life, or even just imagining the details of it, forces Schroff to take stock of her own life.

She reflects on the start of her professional career. Her original life plan was to be an airline stewardess. She was a poor student in school and knew college was out of the question, both because of her grades and her blue-collar family’s finances. Her first job is as a receptionist at an insurance firm. It is easy work in a pleasant enough environment, yet Schroff still dreams of getting out and seeing the world. She contacts a woman who works for Icelandic Airlines and applies for a secretarial job. The position requires that she pass a typing exam, which she fails multiple times. The woman proctoring the test takes pity on her and offers Schroff a receptionist job at Icelandic Air instead. Schroff is giddy with excitement, so much so that she drives home recklessly and gets into a car accident that leaves her badly shaken but unharmed.

Schroff stays at this receptionist job for five years. She does get the chance to travel, seizing at the opportunity to spend the weekend in Rome or take a few days to travel Europe. She has her eye on other, harder-to-get positions, particularly in sales, which interests her. She sees a job posting for an advertising position at USA Today and decides to apply even though she doesn’t have any experience or a college degree. At her interview, she cajoles David, the company rep, into giving her a chance. Her agrees to give her the chance to prove herself. 

Schroff and Maurice meet for lunch a second time, and Maurice gradually begins to tell Schroff more details about his life. One that he offers up right away leaves Schroff floored, even though he delivers the information without judgment and in a very matter of fact voice. When he was 6, his grandmother gave him a marijuana joint as his birthday present. Grandma Rose, a tough woman who, like her grandson, carries a blade on her, both horrifies and intrigues Schroff.

Schroff learns that Rose raised six sons and one daughter alone. The six sons orbit her life, sometimes living with her, sometimes disappearing for extended periods of time, but her sons always return to her. All six are involved with drugs, although one is merely addicted to pot unlike the other five, who participate in the drug trade to various degrees. All have criminal records, with one currently serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking. Violence and addiction mar all of their lives. Yet to young Maurice, they are symbols of stability because they are among the few adults in his life that stick around and express any interest in him. Darcella and Rose come and go, just as Maurice’s various uncles do, but they always reappear. In general, Schroff learns, no one asks Maurice where he is going, where he’s been, or when he’s eaten or slept. His lack of supervision and wildly makeshift life was even more chaotic when his mother Darcella did not come home for two weeks. Maurice’s older sisters found boyfriends to move in with, and Rose moved to a different welfare hotel with a boyfriend of her own. With no money and nowhere to go, Maurice began working for a local pimp, banging on car windows to tell prostitutes when they’d been in there too long with a john. Child Protective Services nearly took Maurice into their custody, but Rose intervened.

The story of the birthday joint is a difficult one for Schroff to process. The details of Maurice’s family upset her yet also strengthen her resolve that she needs to be part of his life. She asks Maurice how he’d like a change of restaurant and tells him they are going to eat at Hard Rock Café tomorrow. He agrees happily.

When Schroff and Maurice go to a nice meal at Hard Rock Café together, Schroff is surprised by what he orders—a steak with mashed potatoes—and how he is dressed—the same old sweats, but they’ve noticeably been laundered, just as his hands and face have been newly scrubbed. After that, they next dine at a nearby diner, one that Schroff noticed Maurice eyeing on multiple occasions, like it is an inscrutable world he’s eager to check out. At the diner, Schroff also surprises Maurice with some news—she wants to take him to a baseball game. This is a complete novelty to Maurice, who has never been to a game. Part of the inspiration for this plan came from Schroff reflecting on her own family experiences. Baseball was the main focal point of her brother Frank’s childhood. He was happiest when holding his beloved worn baseball glove, one that his father destroyed in a fit of anger. Frank never recovered from the loss of that old mitt, and Schroff never forgot how much baseball helped Frank vent his frustrations and have a safe place for his imagination.