Chapter 9 - Very Loud
“Want to see my kite?”
“Absolutely.”
He held it up.
Blue fabric.
Yellow tail.
A little crooked.
“I picked it because it doesn’t need a lock.”
Sarah’s throat tightened.
“That’s a good reason.”
He grinned.
Then ran toward Marcus, yelling, “Nurse Marcus! You have to hold the string but not too tight!”
Marcus saluted.
“Yes, sir.”
Clara sat beside Sarah at the picnic table.
“He looks good.”
Sarah nodded.
“He does.”
Robert stood nearby, watching Ethan with tears in his eyes and a cupcake untouched in his hand.
The boy launched the kite with Marcus helping and Clara shouting advice no one asked for.
The blue shape rose into the Chicago wind.
Not smoothly.
Not perfectly.
But up.
Ethan laughed so loudly that half the park turned.
Sarah closed her eyes for one second and let the sound settle somewhere deeper than memory.
A child laughing without checking who might punish him.
That was healing.
Later, Ethan brought Sarah a cupcake with too much frosting.
“Grandpa says you helped save me.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Your body told us it needed help. You were very brave.”
He frowned, thinking.
“Bodies can tell?”
“Yes.”
“Mine was loud?”
Sarah smiled.
“Very.”
He seemed pleased.
“Good.”
Then he ran back to the kite.
Sarah watched him go.
The scar of the case never left her completely.
May you like
Some cases don’t.
But neither did the lesson.
