Chapter 15: Room 512

Russell's POV

The fifth-floor ward smelled of floor wax and weak coffee, and I knew every inch of it.

My mother had waited here for four months.

I sat in the same plastic chair by the window every night after work.

Nobody had asked me to.

The boy in room 512 was nine and had a heart that was failing the same way hers had.

His mother slept in the recliner beside him with her shoes on.

I had met them on my second night, when the boy asked me why I was crying in the hallway.

"I'm not," I'd said.

"You are. It's okay. My mom does it in the bathroom."

Now I sat on the end of his bed and lost at cards to him every evening.

"You're bad at this," he said, laying down a run of four.

"I know."

"You let me win sometimes."

"I don't let you win. You're just good."

His mother opened one eye from the recliner.

"He cheats," she said.

"I do not," said the boy.

"He's cheating right now," I agreed, and he grinned.

This was the one hour of my day that did not hurt.

On Thursday night the grin faded when he looked past my shoulder.

I turned.

Allison stood in the doorway of the room in her white dock badge, with a paper bag in one hand.

Her hair was coming loose from its pins.

She had not changed out of her work boots.

For a second nobody spoke.

"You're not supposed to be here," I said. "Condition three."

"I know."

"Kayla told you."

"She told me where you were. She didn't tell me to come."

"Then why did you?"

She looked at the boy, then at me.

"I brought sandwiches," she said. "I didn't know what the families eat."

The boy's mother sat up in the recliner.

She looked at Allison's face for a long time, and I saw her understand.

"You're her," she said. "You're the one with the fund."

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