“I thought he forgot.”

“He didn’t forget,” I said.

“But he should have told us what was happening.

I’m sorry we made you wonder.”

She went to her room and returned carrying the little drawing she’d made for him: three stick figures under a sun, with one figure standing slightly apart behind a row of blue scribbles.

“Those are the hospital walls,” she explained.

“Maybe when he comes home I can draw another one without the walls.”