PART 34

The start of a new school year arrived with freshly sharpened pencils and a mountain of forms.

Sadie was taller, more outspoken, and increasingly impatient with adults who assumed children couldn’t handle difficult truths.

At the welcome event she introduced Callum to her teacher with a straightforward explanation: “This is my dad.

He’s a surgeon, but he’s been sick, so right now he’s helping people learn from home.”

Callum looked surprised, then pleased.