Finally, his voice rough and unsteady, he managed a bewildered, ‘Al?’ It cut straight through my heart, the helpless, unfiltered vulnerability in that one word. From the look on his face, he might have forgotten I was standing next to my mother. Hell, he might have forgotten the camp was standing around us, too; his eyes clung to her without pause, an eager, almost desperate hunger in his gaze, as if the smallest detail of her appearance might save his life.
