Me before you

chapter 4

"... And then we had to write a story about it, and Nick read mine and he said it was the best, and I think I'm gonna get a gold star on it. And then at recess we found these birds that were in the trees, and –" Louis's hundred-mile-an-hour monologue crashed abruptly. "Where's my space lamp?"

"I saw it earlier," Sana scanned the room, gaze snagging on the box labelled 'L bedroom', sitting on the bed half-unpacked. She fished through piles of books until her fingers brushed bubble wrap. Sana pulled it out and methodically unwrapped the packaging. "You want it by your bed?"

"Yes please." Louis nodded, still lining up books on his new shelf. "What was I talking about?"

"Birds in the trees," Sana reminded him, leaning up to place his space lamp on the bedside table. They'd almost finished unpacking now. The house, she reflected, was starting to look like a home.

"Oh! Right. And we asked one of the big kids what they were and she didn't know so we asked a teacher and he didn't know either, so once I'm done unpacking I'm gonna look in my bird book and see if I can find it."

"Well, I don't know about you but I'm nearly done here." Sana stepped back to survey her work. Their work. For a nine year old, Louis really did have a strong work ethic. He helped her because he wanted to help her, not because he knew it was the polite thing to do. It made her immeasurably proud – she just hoped he never lost that.

"Really?" Louis spun around, wearing a grin that was one hundred percent too big for his small pale face. "I'm pretty much done too. Wait –" He reached up on his tiptoes to grab one fat hardcover off his shelf, huffing with exertion. Sana watched him with warmth spreading through her chest and a smile playing over her lips. How she'd made someone so remarkable was beyond her.

Louis ran over to jump on his new bed, moving one of the empty boxes out of his way and dropping it on the floor. Squirming his way up against the headboard, her son patted the space beside him rapidly. "C'mon mom! Let's find out what the bird was!"

"Right," Sana climbed onto the bed beside him. It was a single bed, and a child's single bed at that – they barely fitted. But when Louis heaved the book – The Penguin Encyclopedia of Birds. He'd asked for it last Christmas. Whether it was because Wonwoo did conservation work or because he was simply destined to be a genius, he'd been quite adamant he'd rather have that than a new bike. In the end he got both, because Sana had absolutely no self control where her son was concerned. – across both their laps and flipped it open, she had never been in a more comfortable place. "So what did this mysterious bird look like?"

"It was really little," Louis said, squinting at the glossy page. "And it had these kinda blueish feathers. But it wasn't what I was looking for."

"Little with blue feathers," Sana repeated, scanning the shiny pages. "How little? This little?" She motioned with her hands, close together.

Louis laughed. "Not that little!"

"Okay, not that little," Sana allowed.

He looked so happy, hazel eyes bright as they flipped through the book together, and Sana couldn't help feeling a tug in her chest as she watched him. "Louis?" She found herself asking, in one of the breaks in his endless stream of enthusiasm. He looked over at her, eyes wide. She paused. "Are you happy – here?"

"Of course I am," Louis shrugged, like it was that obvious. He didn't even look up from the book. "Everyone's really nice."

"I mean... Do you miss Boston?" She probed gently, studying his face. "Do you miss Daddy?" Louis stared from the open book to her, brows knitted together. "I missed him being around at first. Now I'm just used to it, I guess. But I'm gonna stay with him soon, and we Skype all the time. We didn't really see him anyway, he was always working."