Checkered Hearts
It reminded him of their mother, who had died slowly in a room like Theo's, surrounded by machines that measured her departure in incremental silence.
He'd been fifteen. Theo had climbed into the hospital bed with her, too big by then, curling around her like he could hold the cancer in through sheer pressure. Arthur had stood by the window, calculating the angle of the sun, the time until the next nurse check, the exact moment when hope became statistically impossible.
He'd been right about the moment. He'd never forgiven himself for the calculation.
"Mr. Sullivan?"
Arthur looked up. Not the nurse. The doctor—Datu, he remembered, though the name felt wrong in his mouth, too formal for someo