A local reporter asked Gunter who built it.
"I did."
"Why?"
Gunter looked at Lily.
"Because she needed a reason to smile."
The reporter asked if the motorcycle was for sale.
"No."
"How much did it cost?"
Gunter shook his head.
"That's not the point."
The story appeared online the next morning.
It spread farther than anyone expected.
People praised Gunter.
Others criticized him.
Some said the story was staged.
Some claimed he had done it for publicity.
Gunter ignored all of it.
He had never built the motorcycle for strangers.
Then a letter arrived.
It was from a man named Daniel Price.
Daniel was twelve years old and lived in a town two states away.
His mother had died the previous year.
He wrote that he had stopped talking to people because he was angry.
He had seen the story about Gunter and Lily.
At the bottom of the letter he wrote:
"I thought maybe grown-ups forgot how to be kind."
Gunter read the sentence three times.
Then he called Claire.
"Can Lily write a letter?"
"To whom?"
"A boy."
Lily sat at the kitchen table that evening.
She carefully wrote:
"Dear Daniel,
I don't know you, but Mr. Gunter says being sad doesn't mean you have to stay sad forever.
I hope you find something that makes you smile.
Lily."
Gunter mailed it.
Two weeks later, another letter came.
Daniel had started helping his grandfather repair an old lawn mower.
He said it reminded him of his mother.
He said he was still sad.
But he had started talking again.
Gunter pinned the letter above his workbench.
The garage became busier.
People began bringing broken things.
Some needed repairs.
Some needed someone to listen.
Gunter repaired both.
Then one rainy afternoon, he received a phone call from the hospital.
Claire had collapsed at work.
Gunter drove there immediately.
Lily was sitting in the waiting room, clutching her stuffed rabbit.
She ran to him.
"Mr. Gunter!"
He knelt.
"Where's Mom?"
"She's with the doctor."
"Is she dying?"
Gunter felt his chest tighten.
"No."
He said it firmly.
"No, sweetheart. She's getting help."
Lily cried against his jacket.
Gunter held her.