“I got in,” she said. “Pre-med. I’m doing it, Brandon. I’m going to be a pediatric cardiologist.” She half-laughed. “I’m going to fix hearts like mine.

For kids like me.”

Brandon stood up and came around the desk and pulled his sister into his arms, and held on.

“Mr. Benedict would be so proud of you,” he said into her hair.

“Brandon.” She pulled back to look at him, and her face was very serious. “He’d be proud of you, too. You know that. He picked you for a reason.”

That evening, after everyone had gone, Brandon sat alone in his office as a light rain began to tap against the window — the same soft, steady sound that had filled a hospital room five years before, the night an old man he’d never met had beckoned him closer and changed the whole direction of his life.