“How old
were you?” The voice of Tom asks.
“I was
nine.”
“What was
it like, being nine? What was going on when you were nine? What
about your brother?”
“If I was
nine then James was six. Hey, that's right, I'm starting to
remember. James got really sick that year. He had some kind of
muscular disease, he was in and out of hospital all the time. I
remember Mum and Dad being very worried about him. I remember Dad
taking me for a walk one day. We sat by a river. Dad told me we had
to make the most of the time we got with James. He said he and Mum
might seem like they were giving him more love than me, but they
loved me just as much.” Robert pauses. “He said they needed to
make him stronger.”
