"Third."

"I'm in fourth," Derek said.

Albert walked over to a stack of games on a Formica table. "I got this one at home," he said, pulling out a Chinese checkers box. "Do you know how to play?"

Stony watched in amazement as Albert laid out the board on the floor", set up the marbles and started explaining the game to Derek and Tyrone. The three boys played for over an hour. Stony straddled a folding chair, his chin on the backrest, and watched Albert through that hour. His brain was on fire. This was the first time he ever saw Albert play with kids away from the house. He was loose. Relaxed. Yelled a lot. Laughed a lot. Derek and Tyrone dug him. He had balls. Real stones. Out of the house he came alive. He could take care of himself. Himself. Maybe Albert didn't need him around all the time after all. Stony felt confused. The expression "ace in the hole" popped into his head.

"Hello!" Stony snapped out of his thoughts as Mrs. Le Pietro approached Albert.

"Hello." Albert smiled up at her.

"Who're you?" She checked a list of names on her clipboard.

"Albert!"

"Albert, huh?" She rechecked her names.

"Uh, he's my brother." Stony walked over.

"Oh! He's not a patient? I'm sorry, he'll have to leave immediately. Hospital rules. No children under fourteen as visitors."

"Oh, man!"

"Aw!" Derek and Tyrone protested.

"Sorry, boys, when you get well you can play all you want." She shook her head.

"Ten more minutes?" Albert whined.

"Sorry."

Albert struggled to his feet, brushed the knees of his dungarees. "You wanna come to my house?" he offered.

"They'll come as soon as they're better." She gently ushered Albert from the room.

"See you." Albert waved.

Derek and Tyrone waved back.

"Let's go, chief," Stony said. They walked down the corridor toward the entrance. At the door another nurse stopped them. She knelt in front of Albert and smiled. "We going home today?" Confused, Albert looked up at Stony.

"He's not a patient," Stony said.

"He's not?" She straightened up. "Well, what's he doing here?"

Stony sighed. "He's my brother. I brought him in to play with the kids in the day room. I didn't know it was against the rules. I'm sorry. I'm takin' him home."

"Can I see his discharge slip?"

"His what?" Stony squawked.

The nurse peered at Stony's name tag. "Mr. De Coco, you can't expect me to believe this child is not a patient."

Stony glared at her. "Yeah, I expect you to believe he's not a goddamn patient. He's my goddamn brother. You don't believe me, go check it out with Mrs. Le Pietro. She just kicked him out!"

The nurse stared at Albert, her thumb and index finger caressing her chin. "I'll do that. Please wait here."

"What the fuck?" Stony muttered as the nurse vanished in the shuffling crowd.

"Can you believe that?" he complained to Albert. Albert was busy picking his nose. As they waited for the nurse to return, Stony took some good hard looks at his brother. It hit him that Albert didn't look any different than any kid he'd seen in that day room. He even looked worse than some. If Stony and that nurse were to switch roles, Stony would have acted the same way. In a strange way, although it made him ashamed of himself, Stony found the thought comforting.