didn’t want her to feel like everyone was looking at her because she was different.”
He gestured toward his teammates.
“They all agreed. They said I had to go first, though.”
One of the boys laughed.
“We needed proof he was serious.”
Aaron smiled.
“So I went first.”
Lily reached for his hand.
“He wouldn’t tell me anything,” she said. “He only said he had a surprise.”
Her voice was still weak, but her eyes were bright.
For the first time in months, the hospital room did not feel like a place defined by illness.
It felt alive.
I looked at Diane.
Her arms had fallen to her sides.
Tears streamed silently down her face.
“I couldn’t explain it to you on the phone,” she said. “I kept trying to say, ‘You need to see what your son did,’ but every time I said it, I didn’t know whether I
