Chapter 13
The photo was still in my hand. The letters were spread out on the granite island and none of us had moved them. The kitchen felt too quiet after all the talking, like the house was holding its breath.
Daniel was the one who broke it. He didn't reach for the papers. He looked at me first, then at my mom.
"I can drive you tonight if you want," he said. His voice was low and careful. "Or you can wait. Michael told me no pressure. He meant that. It's your call, Ethan. Not his. Not mine."
I stared down at the photo. The man in it had my hair, my mouth. Even the way he was looking off to the side felt familiar, like I was looking in a mirror that was a little older. My mom's car keys were on the counter by the fruit bowl where she always left them, and her jacket was still hung over the back of the chair. The waiver Daniel had set down was next to the envelope, the line for my signature blank.
My mom pushed herself up from the edge of the counter. She came around the island and stood next to me. She didn't take the photo out of my hand.
"What do you want?" she asked me. Her hand hovered near my shoulder before she let it rest there, light. "Not what you think you should want. What do you actually want to do?"
I swallowed and my throat felt dry. I could hear the refrigerator humming.
"I want to meet him," I said. My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "The man who looks like me. Before I sign anything. I want to see him first."
She nodded like she'd been waiting for me to say that exact thing. Her fingers tightened just a little on my shoulder.
"Okay," she said. "Then we go together. I'm not letting you walk in there by yourself."
Daniel exhaled, a short quiet breath, like he'd been holding it too.
"That's the right way to do it," he said. He pulled his phone out of his bomber jacket pocket. The brown leather strap of his watch caught the kitchen light. "Let me call over there so they know we're coming. They have visiting hours but they'll make an exception for this. Michael's been waiting."
He stepped back toward the hallway to make the call, giving us space. I heard his voice low and even. "Hi, this is Daniel Reyes calling for Michael Fowler's room... Yes... He's got family coming tonight... His son and his mother... About twenty minutes... Thank you."
While he talked, my mom grabbed her jacket off the chair and then went to the hall closet for mine. The dark hallway that Daniel had walked down earlier looked different now, just a hallway with our shoes by the door and the mail on the little table. She held my jacket open for me and I slipped my arms in. The wax-sealed envelope was still on the island, but she left it there with the letters. We weren't bringing any of it to sign.
Daniel came back into the kitchen doorway, phone back in his pocket.
"They said to come to the main entrance and ask for the nurse's desk on three," he said. "He's awake. I told them not to tell him more than that, so he doesn't get nervous."
My mom picked up her keys. She looked at me one more time.
"You sure?" she asked.
I nodded, holding the photo. I folded it careful and put it in my own jacket pocket, not on the island with the rest.
May you like
"Yeah," I said. "I want to go now."
Daniel held the front door open for us, and the night air came in. My mom put her hand on my back as we stepped out into the dark, all three of us heading out together.
