Chapter 53
“I want to touch Aunt Betty,” he said. “Say goodbye.”
He remembered the puzzled look on his mother’s face.
“Her sisters got to kiss her,” he told her.
“That’s different,” Lori said.
“Why’s it different?”
“Because they’re close, they’re family.”
“She’s my aunt,” he said.
Christian watched his mother bring her hand to her face, and touch her eyes to shut them. She nodded. “Quickly,” she whispered, and looked away, as if what he was doing was wrong.
Christian felt sick to his stomach, staring down at his aunt. He clenched down on his teeth like his father did to help him sleep at night.
Reaching out to touch Aunt Betty’s hand felt weird. He glanced at her peaceful face, and hoped she would open her eyes and yell at him for waking her out of a deep sleep.
* * * *
“Aunt Betty isn’t coming back,” his father told Christian later that night when he was tucking his son into bed, drawing the comforter up to his chest and leaning over him to kiss him goodnight.