Chapter 551 Lust & Found:>39

• Mom got it, and asked me to leave her to do that until she'd gotten over the worst of the loss, and of course I agreed. I didn't mind having her there; even if her conversation was usually monosyllabic, she was still company for me; if she was silent and uncommunicative, at least I still had the sound of her breathing at night, especially if I woke up to find her huddled up against me, her cheeks wet where she'd been crying in her sleep.
• My heart was breaking for my baby sister, I didn't know how to help her, and I couldn't give her back what she needed most in the world, so we ambled along, silently communicating, or not, living in silences that we didn't know how to break.
• Eventually she began to come back, to take notice when I commented on a show we were watching, to maybe give a wan smile when I made a joke, and to spend more time in her room or with mom rather than hiding-out in my room. I breathed a sigh of relief as she recovered from the paralysing grief that had almost overwhelmed her, and sometimes now I caught her looking oddly at me, then grinning mysteriously before looking away.