PART FOUR — WHAT HAPPENED AT LUNCH
The rest of the story came out in pieces.
Liam had joined Maya’s class six weeks earlier after finishing chemotherapy. His hair had not begun to grow back, and he did not wear a hat indoors. During his first days, most students merely stared. Soon, however, some of the children who had once targeted Maya began turning their attention toward him.
They joked that his head shone beneath the classroom lights. They compared him to an egg. One child asked whether cancer was contagious and moved away from him at lunch.
Maya knew the feeling of walking into a room and wondering what someone might say. She knew how it felt when laughter started behind her and she could not tell whether it was about her. Most of all, she knew the loneliness of realizing that other people saw what was happening but chose not to step in.
So on Liam’s second day, she sat beside him.
