“I will.”

He climbed aboard and turned to find a seat near the front.

He still asked questions at night sometimes.

He still missed parts of the life we had before everything changed.

I answered what I could and did not promise that every feeling would disappear now the paperwork was finished.

The easy mornings came more often.

On a day I was not scheduled at the clinic, I raked the leaves behind the house.

The lawn reappeared in long strips, wet and green beneath the red and gold.