“I believe you,” I said.

“I believe you completely, Lucas.

You didn’t take anything.

I know that.” And I watched something in his face loosen, just slightly, the smallest release of a tension he had been holding since the accusation, and I understood that of all the injuries he had suffered that night, the one that had frightened him most was the one to his name.

I have thought a great deal, since, about what it says about my son that this was his first concern, and about what it says about children in general.