(2007) Chasing Fireflies - A Novel of Discovery Read Online Free PDF

flashed my credentials.
    He nodded, shrugged, said, "Good luck," and opened the door.

    The room sat in the corner of the hospital where two large windows poured heavy sunlight onto the whitewashed walls. The TV was off, and the kid sat in a chair looking out the window. He was drawing in a spiral notebook. He held the pencil sideways-like an artist sketching with charcoal-and his hand made quick strokes. He heard us walk in, tucked the pencil behind his ear, closed the notebook, and folded his hands across it. He sat cross-legged in the chair and wore only long pajama pants covered in baseballs.
    I pulled up a chair and sat quietly alongside him. For a minute, I said nothing. I scanned the skin on his back, looking at the random pattern of scars, while Unc circled us. When he got behind the kid, he managed a quick, short breath and sucked unconsciously between his teeth. He wiped his nose, took off his hat, and leaned against the window, shaking his head. A second later, he cussed under his breath.
    The kid was skinny, pale, and covered in ant bites. Puss leaked out from beneath white gauze on his back and trickled down his spine. Unc walked out of the room to the nurses' counter, grabbed some pads, and then knelt in front of the kid. He showed the clean pad to the kid and said, "I'd like to use this to wipe off your back. That okay with you?"
    The kid nodded once, but never took his eyes off the floor. He reminded me of a yellow Labrador puppy I'd once seen in a humane shelter-thick, dirty hair matted like a Brillo pad, big round eyes glued to the floor, floppy ears that hid half his face, tail tucked between his legs, and oversized paws that he was years from growing into.
    Unc held out his left hand. "Here, you hold my hand."
    The kid's eyes darted from the floor to the hand.
    "If it hurts at all, you squeeze my hand." He paused. "Deal?"
    The kid slowly placed his hand inside Unc's.
    Remember that game in grammar school where one kid places both palms on top of another kid's outstretched palms and then pulls them back before the other kid slaps the top of one? And remember how, if you were the kid whose hands were on top, it was to your advantage to press ever so slightly? That's what I thought of when I saw that kid place his hand in Uncle Willee's.

    Unc peeled off the yellowed gauze and gently patted the trickle. He placed two more clean pads across the festering wound and then helped the kid sit up and lean back where the pressure against the chair held the pads against his back.
    The kid slid his hand back and stared at his lap.
    Unc knelt next to him and said, "All done." When the kid didn't respond, Unc pulled a lollipop out of his shirt pocket and said, "You know ... you should never take candy from strangers?"
    The kid eyed the green candy, bit his lip, and then continued studying the floor.
    Unc pulled off the wrapper and held it out. "Good, let's keep it that way."
    The kid hesitated, like he didn't intend to fall for this trap.
    Unc saw his hesitation and set the candy on top of the wrapper on the notebook. "Whenever you want it." Unc stepped back, and the kid's hand slowly cupped the lollipop.
    I looked at the notebook and made a conscious decision to lower and soften my voice. "What you drawing?" Since we had walked in, I had yet to really see the kid's face. Until now, I'd only seen the top of his head and the first inch or so of his forehead.
    He let go of the end of the sucker and flipped open the notebook. Spread across two pages was a sketch of the moment when the front end of a train collided with what looked like an old Impala. This was no child's stick drawing, and it was no cartoon either.
    "Is that your car?"
    He shook his head.
    "Is that the car you were in?"
    He nodded.
    "What's your name?"

    He pulled the pencil from behind his ear, drew a question mark, then circled it.
    Seconds passed. I tried again. "Until the age of six, folks called me something different every time they shuffled me from one