I have told him, many times since, and I will keep telling him for as long as I live: that he was not weak that night, that being frightened is not the same as being weak, and that his courage — the specific, hard courage of a scared child who does the brave thing anyway — was half of what saved us.

I could not have done it alone.

I did not have to.

I had him.\n\nThe first thing I saw was the granite counter where our phones always sat.

Both of them were gone.

Of course they were.

He had taken the easiest, most obvious way for us to call for help, and he had taken it first.

Chapter 5 — The Blue Plate