Chapter 38 — Almost Not Going

When the time finally came to leave for the United States, Santiago nearly didn’t go.

He was afraid — afraid to leave his grandparents so soon after finding them, afraid that his repaired body might fail him again far from the doctors who knew him, afraid, underneath all of it, of wanting something as much as he wanted this and risking losing it again.

It was Joaquín who talked him onto the plane.