Chapter 25: Let Her Sleep

We reached the transplant ward at midnight, still in our gala clothes.

A nurse handed us gowns and masks and said nothing about the tuxedo.

Sam was awake.

He sat against the pillows with his cowlick flat on one side, and he pointed a thin finger at the door.

"You came," he told Vaughn.

"I came."

"Mama said you were at a party."

"I was. I left early."

"Why?"

"You asked for me," Vaughn said.

His voice broke on the last word, and Sam frowned at him over the blanket.

"You're being sad again."

"A little."

"Then sit down. You can be sad on the bench."

There was no bench, only the chair by the bed, and Vaughn sat in it.

Sam studied him with the full seriousness of five years old.

"The doctor says my blood is making new blood," he said. "He says it started from yours."

"It's yours now," Vaughn said. "I just lent you the first batch."

"Are you going to go away when I'm better?"

The monitor beeped twice in the quiet.

I waited, and I did not know what I wanted Vaughn to say.

"No," Vaughn said. "Not while your mama lets me stay. And if she says no, I'll sit at the end of the road, and you can wave at me."

"Mama's nice. She'll say yes."

"She hasn't promised me that."

Sam turned his gray eyes on me.

"Mama?"

"We'll see, bug," I said. "Close your eyes."

He was asleep within a minute, with two of Vaughn's fingers wrapped in his fist.

Vaughn did not move his hand.

I walked out to the corridor, because I could not keep my face together in that room for one more second.

Ansley's mother was sitting on the bench outside the observation glass.

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