Connor strode down the hospital hallway, averting his eyes from the glances of the nurses working at the central station. Trigger, adorned in his purloined service-dog vest, walked beside him with his head held high.
In his earlier visits, he had worried someone might challenge Trigger’s right to be there. He wasn’t a service dog, and people knew it.
But now he worried about his own right to visit. Maybe Theo didn’t want to see him, or maybe there was a rule against it. They weren’t related, at least not anymore.
He realized he liked it better when he did things without thinking about the consequences. Thinking about what could go wrong was exhausting.
With a trembling hand, he knocked on the door and waited for the mumbled reply. He pushed the latch and stuck his head through the crack on the door. “Mind if I come in for a minute?”
Whatever hesitance Connor was feeling wasn’t shared by the dog. Trigger let loose a soft chuff, forced open the door with his body, and scrambled across the linoleum floor. His claws clattered on the slick surface, and he launched himself through the air, landing with an enthusiastic bounce on the bed. The dog’s squeaks of delight and Theo’s giggles filled the room as Connor let the door click shut behind him. He set the stack of Harry Potter books on the bed and settled into the empty visitor’s chair. Trigger’s obvious delight—that sweeping tail threatened to clear the tray table of its water glass and pitcher—made Connor smile despite the violation he had felt since the revelation of the previous night.
Once the dog settled on the bed, still jubilant in the reunion but calmer, Connor cleared his throat. “I debated all night whether I should come. I didn’t know if you would want to see me.”
The smile faded from Theo’s face, and he wouldn’t meet Connor’s eyes. “I’m glad you did. I wanted to say… I’m sorry. I should never…”
Connor waved the apology away with a swoop of his hand. “I think I kinda get it. Why you didn’t tell us you weren’t him. I mean, if you had told us, we probably wouldn’t have gotten to know you. And we wouldn’t have taken you home.”
The bed squeaked as Trigger pawed at the boy’s hand to continue petting him. Theo turned his head toward the dog, his eyes glistening. “It’s the first place I’ve ever been I didn’t want to leave.”
Connor cupped his hands behind his head, looked up at the ceiling, and exhaled. “I get it. And I’m glad you were there. It was fun, hanging out.”
Theo nodded. “I liked it too.”
They sat in an uncomfortable silence, only the noise of the dog’s panting in the room. Connor leaned forward. “Can you tell me something?”
“Sure.”
“What was he like? My brother. Tell me something good about him.”
Theo thought for a minute and then looked at the pile of books. “Did you know he taught me how to read?”
Connor sat up in shock. “He did?”
“Yeah. Most of the kids were so little they could only sound out a few words. I don’t think I knew any at all. But Jaxon loved to read. We had a few old books lying around, and he read them all to me. He would read until it got too dark to see. And then he would tell me the stories of books he had read before.”
“That sounds like Jax.”
“So, anyway, one of the books we had was that dictionary. I don’t remember who brought it or anything, but it was always there. And Jaxon liked to flip through it and learn new words, so one day he started showing me how words worked. He invented the dictionary game to teach me how to read. He would look up a word and have me sound it out. We kept trying harder and harder words, and we had to try and figure out what they meant without looking at the definition.”
“So he taught you Harry Potter?”
Theo shook his head. “No. We didn’t have those. I think he would have liked them. But I know I can read ’em because he showed me how.”
“That’s cool.” Connor shifted in his chair. Something had kept him up all night, and he had to ask. “The story about Kevin being beaten for calling out to the hitchhiker. Was that true?”
The boy buried his face into the dog’s neck, his shoulders shuddering. He sniffled and answered, his voice muffled in the fur. “Yes. Everything I told you was true. Except my name.”
“So Kevin was Jaxon?” He could barely bring himself to say it. “That means you saw that man beat my brother to death?”
“Yes.”
The room blurred as tears of anguish filled his eyes. His chest ached, as if he was drowning in a sea of pain. He struggled to breathe, each intake of air hitching against the sobs trying to escape. Jaxon had been beaten to death because he had ridden off with his friends rather than watch his little brother.
Theo sighed. “I wanted to stop him, but he would have done the same thing to me.”
“I get it.”
“He was my best friend. I loved him. Like a”—Theo took in a deep breath, his own words slurred with emotion—“like a brother. If I could have stopped it…”
Connor rose to his feet and stumbled toward the bed. He reached out for the younger boy’s hand, his fingers wrapping around his wrist. “I’m glad he had you as a friend. I can’t imagine how horrible it would’ve been alone there.”
Theo looked up, their eyes meeting. “It was awful alone. Once he was gone, I wanted to die too.”
Connor wrapped his arms around the boy, drawing them chest to chest, where they consoled each other. Trigger wriggled between them, alternately licking their faces clear of the flowing tears. “I’m glad you didn’t.”