table.
“I made a little video. About Leo. I think everyone should see it.”
Brenda’s smile faltered. “Mark, this really isn’t the time—”
“It’ll only take five minutes.”
He opened the laptop and pressed play.
The video started with a photo of Lily before her diagnosis. Smiling, healthy, with beautiful brown curls.
Then a video of her in the hospital. Bald. Crying.
Then Leo, three years old, climbing into her bed. His small voice: “Don’t worry, Lily. I’ll grow my hair for both of us.”
The room went completely silent.
The video continued. Lily’s treatments. Leo refusing haircuts. Leo explaining to anyone who asked: “I made a promise to my sister.”
Lily going into remission. Her hair starting to grow back.
Leo keeping his curls. “I made a promise.”
Then the final clip. Leo crying in our living room, holding a single curl, his head buzzed and uneven.
His voice,
