Chapter 39

Keith came running into the room. Suddenly, he could move again. Bobby bolted up in bed. He looked up at Keith in terror. “I remembered how they died. He didn’t have his head; my father was headless. That’s why the closed coffin and why no one would let me see them. My dad had his head cut off, and my mother bleed to death in minutes. Shrapnel severed her carotid artery, the same shrapnel that took out my dad. It went through his neck then to her artery.” Bobby kept sobbing.

Keith picked him up. He turned his face into Keith’s chest, and the familiar smell comforted him. He clung to Keith. “Do you want to sleep in my room with me tonight? I won’t violate your trust. I’ll just hold you until you sleep.”

“Hold me, Keith, please hold me, hold me now. I can’t believe I’ll never see them again. I c…ca…can’t.” Keith put Bobby down under the covers and crawled in beside him.

Pulling Bobby into his arms Keith kissed his hair. “Go to sleep, baby. I’m here.”