Lucy’s parents also returned in pieces.
Laura came every Tuesday morning, when the ward was quiet. She could read only short passages before panic tightened her chest, so Mason sat outside and counted breaths with her.
Ben entered an alcohol-treatment program. For six weeks, he visited with a counselor. He never asked Eli to forgive him.
He started by showing up.
Eli did not make it easy.
“Where were you?” he asked during Ben’s first full visit.
Ben looked at Lucy.
“Hiding.”
“From her?”
“From how scared I was.”
Eli considered that. “I was scared too.”
“I know.”
“You still left.”
“I know that too.”
No dramatic reconciliation followed. Eli opened his book and gave his father the second chair.
That was all.
On the twenty-third day of Lucy’s seventeenth month, Eli arrived late because his school bus broke down. Rook was already there, reading a book about a bear who disliked honey.
