CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

ANDREW

“Caleb?”

Hearing that name again brought fresh pain to Andrew. He could bear that his mother couldn't recognize him but she thinking her dead son was still alive?

He was filled with great sorrow.

“Caleb? Is that really you? Are you back?”

Andrew's mother held his face with her frail hands, desperately wishing for her dead son to respond.

She held Andrew's eyes and finally enveloped him in a hug.

The two stayed there on the bed, unmoving. A mother happy to see her dead son and a child who would give anything for his mother to recognize him.

After a while of allowing her to swim in the unreal world, Andrew broke off the hug and stared into her eyes, wanting to bring her back to reality.

“Mum?”

“Caleb's not here. It's me, Andrew.” He stared into her confused eyes, silently pleading for her to remember.

“Caleb's gone, it's just me.”

“Mummy?”

He called her how he always did, his voice soft and shaky, like a lost boy afraid to lose that one thing he cherished most.

His mother froze,