His Healing Touch novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Floor

I did not go to him.

Every instinct I'd trained for told me to wait.

I sat down on Freddie's rug, slowly, with my legs crossed and my hands in my lap.

Stewart started to speak and I lifted one finger.

He closed his mouth.

Freddie stood very straight in his raincoat with the plastic bag of trains in one fist.

His eyes went to my face, then to the window, then to my knees.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said. "Moms can say things. Dads can say things. I say things too."

He flapped one hand.

"I say stay."

Nothing moved in his face.

"That's the whole thing I say. Stay."

I took off my watch, set it on the rug between us, and turned it face up.

"When the little hand is on the three, I'm still here. Then we check. And then we check again."

I didn't say any more than that.

I'd learned long ago that a frightened child hears one sentence of every ten.

The room was so quiet I could hear the radiator tick.

After a long time, Freddie put the plastic bag down.

He took out a green train, crossed the rug in his raincoat, and set it on my knee.

Then a second one.

Then a third, in a line.

He sat down next to me, not touching, and began to roll the first one along the floorboard.

Stewart made a small choked sound and slid down the doorframe until he was sitting too.

When the little hand reached the three, Freddie looked at my watch.

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