The Last Twenty Dollars in Margaret's Purse

Margaret Thornton sat in her kitchen on Elm Street in Decatur, Illinois, staring at a single twenty-dollar bill. It was January 1983. The plant had closed. Her husband Earl had been gone two years. The furnace groaned against the cold, and the refrigerator held half a carton of eggs and some leftover soup. She smoothed the bill flat on the table and did what she always did when the math stopped working — she opened her Bible.…