I asked, “Why did you do that?”
He shrugged, but there was a hint of nerves in it.
“Because nobody else asked.”
After graduation season, my family moved away for extended rehab, and whatever chance there was of seeing him again disappeared with it.
I spent two years moving between surgeries and rehab. I learned how to transfer without falling. I learned how to walk short distances with braces. Then longer ones without them. I learned how quickly people mistake survival for healing.