“Of course you were.”
“But then I felt guilty.”
I took her hand.
“Why?”
She looked down at the diploma.
“Because I was happy about something he never got to have. I was standing there, and people were clapping for me, and all I could think was that he should have been standing beside me.”
I let her speak.
“I thought if I celebrated too much, it would mean I was leaving him behind. Like I was moving forward and forgetting that he was supposed to come with me.”
I squeezed her hand.
“Do you remember what Felix told you when you were talking about graduation?”
She looked up.
I remembered the conversation clearly. It had taken place a few weeks before his final hospitalization, on an evening when he was tired but determined to finish a school assignment.
He had asked Emma what she would do if he didn’t make it to graduation.
