“We always do.”
He leaned his head against the window.
“That’s another rule.”
“What?”
“You look after people.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re people too.”
I laughed softly.
“Yes.”
“So I’m supposed to look after you too.”
I looked at him in the mirror.
“Yes, Caleb.”
“We look after each other.”
“Exactly.”
A few minutes later, he fell asleep.
His favorite player’s name stretched across the back of his jersey.
The highway was almost empty.
I drove.
And somehow, the smell of the football field still clung faintly to his clothes.
Real.
Present.
Ours.
