for four years. I packed his lunches. I walked him to school. I knew that he liked the crusts cut off on Mondays but not on Fridays, for reasons he’d never explain. I knew which night-light stayed on when the bad dreams came.
I knew him the way you know your own heartbeat.
“Walter?” My voice came out as barely a scrape.
His eyes flew open.
For one long second, he just stared at me, like he didn’t trust what he was seeing. Like he’d imagined this so many times that he couldn’t tell anymore whether it was real.
Then he launched himself at me.
“Granny!“
He buried his face in my chest and sobbed so hard his whole body shook. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I didn’t need to. I wrapped my weak, heavy arm around him and held on as tightly as I could.
