“Feeling queasy. Haven’t had time to eat today.” Greer took a seat on an iron bench next to the fountain.
Jewell sat down next to him in concern. “Do you need me to get you something to eat?”
“No, I’ll go through a drive-thru when I get enough of my strength back. Just sit with me a spell in case I pass out.” Greer stared up at the dark sky. “It’s a beautiful night. All the stars are out.”
Jewell looked up at the sky. “Yes, they are.”
Jewell felt Greer take her hand. Shocked that he was willingly touching her, she started to look back to him.
“Keep looking up. Supposed to be a meteor shower tonight.” Greer’s voice deepened, drawing her in.
Jewell sucked air into her lungs, feeling as if she was no longer sitting on the bench and was instead flying toward the stars. Rapidly blinking to clear her head, she knew she was imagining soaring above the hospital, yet it felt so fucking real.
“We’re here. Open your eyes.”
Not aware she had closed her eyes, she opened them at Greer’s urging. Then Jewell jumped from the bench to pull her son into her arms.
“Michael … Michael …” she sobbed, holding her son close.
“Mom … don’t cry … Please, don’t cry.” Michael patted her awkwardly.
“I’ll try.” Jewell hastily wiped her eyes, seeing Michael was about to cry. “I’ve missed you so badly.”
“Why? I’ve been here with you.”
“It’s not the same. I can’t touch you, hold you, or talk to you.”
“You did today,” he said simply. “I heard you. Mom, they won’t let you stay long … You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Who won’t—”
Jewell tried to take her eyes off Michael, to see if anyone was near him. When she did, her vision became blurry, and her eyes were forced back to Michael to retain her focus.
Michael placed his hands on each of her cheeks. “Mom, don’t cry …” He pressed his forehead to hers, as if giving her his strength. “Not anymore. That’s why I asked Logan to give you the star, so you won’t miss me. Don’t be scared for me. Uncle Brandon and Uncle Trevor are here with me. We play together all the time. Uncle Brandon never lets me win when we play ball, but Uncle Trevor lets me win sometimes.”
“They’re here with you?” Each word she uttered burned her clogged throat as she tried to speak.
“All the time … unless I sneak out to see you.”
Her son was so much like her.
A broken laugh left her.
“Do you get in trouble when you sneak out?” she asked.
“No, they just ask me how you’re doing. They don’t want you crying, either.”
“Can you tell them how much I love them and miss them?”
“They know, Mom. I’ve already told them.”
Jewell gripped his child hands to pull them from her face. Placing kisses on them, she gripped them in hers.
“We have to go, Jewell,” Greer’s low voice interrupted them.
“Don’t ask me to leave him,” Jewell sobbed.
“Mom”—Michael’s voice became more boyish, unlike the childlike one she clung to in her memories—“you can’t stay. You live somewhere else, and I live here. It doesn’t mean we can’t be happy. I’m not lost, looking for you. I know where you are, and you know where I am.
“Do you remember when we went to the amusement park and rode the Ferris wheel? The first time I rode it, I hated it and cried to get off. The man stopped the wheel and let me off to stay with Uncle Brandon. You kept riding it while we watched. You’re still riding it, Mom, and we’re still watching … And we’ll be waiting until your ride is over. I always want you to enjoy your ride as much you wanted me to.”
“Your ride was too short,” Jewell protested.
“I got off where I was supposed to, just like you will someday. But it won’t be today.”
Michael began to turn blurry, like an out-of-focus picture.
“Don’t go …” Jewell begged.
“When I was little and got hurt, you used to”—Michael’s image became clear again—“kiss it and make it better.”
Jewell felt a soft kiss pressed to her forehead.
Wrapping her arms around him, she clung to him desperately, even as the gnarling pain she had lived with since his death began to fade away, just like Michael.
“We’re back, Jewell.”
Greer’s voice had her opening her eyes to find her kneeling beside the fountain and her arms, that had been holding Michael, now empty.
Using the bench, she managed to lift herself up and sitting next to Greer.
“How did you do that? Did you hypnotize me?” she asked him shakingly.
Greer was in worse shape than she was. His skin had gone ashen gray, and unless she was mistaken, his hair had gone even whiter.
“Yeah … let’s go with that.” Holding on to the back of the bench, Greer stood. “Reckon I’ll be heading back to Treepoint now.”