The fear, however, was still alive in him.
I saw it at the airport.
He kept scanning faces.
He flinched when someone behind us laughed too loudly.
He checked twice to make sure Levi had his phone, his wallet, and his boarding pass.
Levi had never been to Ohio.
He sat beside me on the plane and asked questions almost the entire way.
“What’s Grandma like?”
“She makes too much food when she’s nervous.”
“What about Grandpa?”
“He pretends not to cry, but he cries.”
“Do they hate him?”
I looked across the aisle at Jesse, who was staring out the window with his jaw tight.
“No,” I said. “But love and anger can live in the same room.”
Levi nodded slowly, as though filing that away.
My father opened the front door before we reached the porch.
