She had made another drawing.

This one showed all three of us beneath a giant yellow umbrella, the hospital walls erased.

PART 11

The pathology took longer than anyone hoped.

Some days Callum managed a short walk with a therapist.

Other days the pain left him silent for hours.

We learned not to treat one good afternoon as a prediction about the next morning.

I kept a notebook beside his medications, not because I suddenly believed life could be controlled with checklists, but because our thoughts were too scattered to keep straight.