For Three Years, I Believed My Wife Had Abandoned Me After My Accident—Then I Found Her Holding Our Son and Learned My Mother Had Told Her I Was Dead

Bananas cut into small circles.

I learned he disliked loud thunderstorms.

That he loved whales.

That he slept with a stuffed animal Chloe had bought during her pregnancy.

I learned the ordinary details I’d missed.

And each new fact felt both wonderful and painful.

One afternoon, Noah stood beside my chair watching me fasten the support brace I sometimes wore beneath my trousers.

“Does it hurt?”