Oliver

            He stood in the doorway listening to Steven’s father reading the last words of Oliver Twist, by now so familiar a tale. It ended better for Oliver than for Steven. He watched them turn off the machines, pull out the needles, watched barren grief fill the faces of parents who had fought so hard.

            The sims weren’t the same as the real world. He had fought for these parents, and now their grief penetrated him like sharp needles sinking slowly through his skin. He stood in the doorway and cried with them. He hadn’t known it would be like this.

Hope

           In the midst of death there is life. Dickens was right. Even the most painful circumstances can have a glimmer of hope. He failed to save Steven Chambers. He failed Steven’s parents. He couldn’t save everyone. But he could save another boy. Steven’s death meant that another family would not have to suffer what the Chambers were suffering. His death gave hope. What agency had determined that such hope should exist in the midst of despair?

            He didn’t know that one day it would be his brother’s heart he would be giving up, offering hope out of his own despair.