CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT

My heart flutters at his words just like I’m a teenager all over again. But he says it so quietly that I’m not sure that he wanted me to hear it. I don’t know how to respond to it anyway, so I don’t respond. I hope he’ll leave it at that.

It’s difficult though because the more we talk, the more impressed I am by him. He tells me how he moves about the world while blind and I become more attracted to him because of his strength, his courage, and his determination to never give up, even though being blind of course is something difficult to live with.

“I don’t think I could do it, honestly,” I say, after we’ve talked about it longer. “I don’t know how you do.”

“That’s nothing compared to what you’re going through,” he says. “You’re so strong to have made it this far. I’m in awe of you.”

I can’t fully argue with that because I would rather be blind than lose my whole pack. I’d rather be blind than lose James. Which makes this all so much more difficult.

I just lost James. He died in