Before I Forget His Name novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Ask Me Again
He took me to the end of Pier Seven at dusk, because I told him to.
I had told him to take me somewhere that mattered to me, and he had known at once which place that was.
The night crew was loading a freighter at the next berth.
The cranes were lit, white and tall against the water.
Nobody had driven us.
We had walked the whole length of the pier from the gate.
Bruno's car stood at the entrance, and his men had been told to stay behind.
At the railing I turned around.
"Stand there," I said. "In the light."
He stood.
He had put on a black coat and left his collar open, and the wind took the edge of the coat.
"Six months ago I asked you a question," I said. "I don't remember it. Bruno told me what it was."
"I remember it."
"Say it back to me."
His mouth was a hard line.
"You asked how I could sit by your bed all night with a fever," he said, "and then act as if losing you would cost me nothing."
"That's it." I folded my arms against the cold. "Answer it."
He looked at the water for a long moment.
"I sat there because I couldn't leave," he said. "You had a hundred and four. You said my name twice in your sleep. I listened to every breath until five in the morning, and when the fever broke I went out to the hall and put my back against the wall and I couldn't stand up."
I said nothing.
"In the morning I knew that if I ever said your name to you again, I would never let you leave this house. So I stopped saying it. I thought that was the same as keeping you safe."
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