“Are you mad?”
I looked at him for a long moment. “I am shocked, baby,” I said. “But I am so proud of you. And I’m also mad that you sold something that valuable without telling me first.”
That guitar had cost more.
He nodded quickly. “That’s fair.”
I held out my hand. “Come here.”
He crossed the room and folded himself into me, all elbows and thirteen-year-old awkwardness. I put my arms around him and felt the last of the anger dissolve into something heavier and warmer.
“You’re too much like your father,” I murmured.
He pulled back. “Is that good or bad?”
“Today? Inconvenient, expensive, and good.”
That made him laugh.
“You’re too much like your father.”
***
The next morning, my son made me a cup of tea and asked if we could pick up the wheelchair.
“It’s ready at the hospital, Mom,” he said. “Can we go? And then drop it off at Emily’s house? It’s going to be a surprise because… I didn’t say anything about it.”
“What about her parents, honey? Won’t they be mad that you meddled?” I asked, already putting my shoes on.
“I don’t think they can be mad. They couldn’t help her, so I did. I’m not blaming them. It’s just that… she needed it.”
“Won’t they be mad that you meddled?”
***
Emily opened the door in her old chair and went completely still when she saw David.
He cleared his throat. “Hey, Em. I…”
She looked from him to the box and back again. “What’s that?”
He glanced at me once, then back at her. “It’s a new wheelchair for you.”
Her mouth parted, and she looked like she might cry. “What?!”
Jillian, her mother, appeared behind her, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Emily, who’s…”
She stopped too.
“It’s a new wheelchair for you.”
David set the box down so fast he nearly dropped it. “Your old one was bad,” he said. “I mean, not bad bad, just… it wasn’t working right. And I found one, and I thought maybe…”
Emily’s eyes filled so suddenly it made my chest ache.
“You bought me a wheelchair?” she whispered.
David looked embarrassed. “Yeah.”
“How?”
He hesitated.
I answered for him. “He sold his guitar, sweetie.”
Emily’s eyes filled so suddenly it made my chest ache.
Jillian put a hand over her mouth.
Emily stared at him like he had handed her the moon. “Why would you do that? You love playing guitar, David.”
My son shrugged, which was his favorite move whenever he had done something huge and wanted to pretend it wasn’t. “Because you needed it, Em.”
Emily’s father, Nathan, came into the hallway then, still in his uniform pants and a gray T-shirt, like he’d just gotten off a shift and hadn’t fully settled in yet. He took one look at the box, then at Emily crying, then at David.
“What’s going on here?”
Jillian turned to him. “David sold his guitar to buy Emily a new chair.”
“Because you needed it, Em.”
Nathan went completely still, suddenly looking younger and more tired at once.
David, poor kid, mistook that silence for trouble.
“It’s okay if you don’t want it,” he said quickly. “I mean, I already paid for it, but I could probably…”
Emily started crying for real then. “No! No, I want it. I need it.”
She laughed through tears and reached for him, and David stepped forward awkwardly, letting her hug him while his ears turned red.
Then Jillian was crying too.
Emily started crying for real then.
Nathan wasn’t. But something in his face changed in a way I can’t forget.
He stepped toward David slowly, like he didn’t want to scare him. “Son,” he said, his voice rough. “You sold something you loved for my daughter?”
David looked down at the floor. “Yeah, sir.”
Nathan swallowed once. “Thank you. Thank you, my boy.”
That should have been the end of it.
But it wasn’t.
“You sold something you loved for my daughter?”
***
The next morning, somebody pounded on my front door hard enough to rattle the frame.
I barely got it open before two uniformed officers filled the doorway.
“Ma’am,” one of them said. “Are you Megan?”
My mouth went dry. “Yes, I am.”
The second officer glanced past me. “We’re Officers Daniels and Cooper. Is your son here?”
My stomach dropped so hard it hurt. “Why? What happened?”
Before either of them answered, David came into the hall behind me.
Somebody pounded on my front door hard enough to rattle the frame.
Officer Daniels looked at him, then back at me. “Ma’am, are you aware of what your son did yesterday?”
My hand shot to the doorframe. “What’s going on?”
David went pale. “Mom…”
Officer Daniels lifted a hand. “He’s not under arrest.”
That should have helped, but it didn’t.
“Then why are you here?” I snapped.
Officer Cooper shifted awkwardly. “Because what your son did reached people, ma’am. Someone wants to thank him.”
“What’s going on?”
I turned toward David. He looked like he might pass out.
“Shoes,” I said.
“What?”
