Chapter 10
Julian walked the rest of the way to the bed, his boots heavy on the floor. He didn't take off his coat, and he didn't sit in the plastic chair. He stood beside the boy, looking down at the woman who had carried the weight of his departure for half a lifetime without ever sending a bill.
"The doctor says the machine stays," Julian said, his hand coming out of his pocket to rest briefly on the metal rail of the bed. It was cold under his palm.
"The doctor says a lot of things," Clara murmured, her eyes still closed. "Most of them cost money we never had."
"Money isn't the problem anymore," Julian replied, his voice dropping so low the boy had to lean in to catch the words. "I have more than I know what to do with. I bought three buildings on the boulevard last month. I don't even remember their street numbers."
Clara opened her eyes again. They were clear, fixed on his face with an unsettling intensity that made him want to look away toward the barred window. "And what did you buy them with, Julian? Silence?"
Julian didn't answer. He couldn't. The silence in the room grew heavy, punctuated only by the steady, rhythmic hiss-click of the oxygen machine pumping life into a body that had long since grown tired of the fight. He looked at Leo, who had curled up against his mother’s side, his eyes already heavy with sleep, his small hand still resting protectively over the carved wooden flute.
"He plays it well," Julian said, nodding toward the instrument to change the subject before the truth of her question took root in his chest.
"He plays it when he's hungry," Clara said softly. "Just like you did behind the old mill when your father told you there was no bread for dinner."
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Julian felt the blood rise in his neck, hot and stinging against the stiff collar of his shirt. He looked down at his shoes, then back at the woman in the bed, realizing for the first time that you can run across the world, change your name, put on a tuxedo, and buy every stone in the city, but you never really leave the place where you were hungry for the first time.
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