Tobias had just dug his keys from his pocket. “What’s wrong? This doesn’t have anything to do with your grandmother, does it?” He was afraid Susan had told Maya he wasn’t allowed in the store, or she wouldn’t be allowed to help in the store if she continued to associate with him.

“No, it’s nothing to do with Grandma. It’s about Uncle Atticus.”

She knew how Atticus had lost the use of his legs, so the way she was approaching this subject made him uneasy. “What about him?”

She nibbled nervously on her bottom lip. “It’s one of those things that maybe I shouldn’t talk about, but I want to fix, so I think it might be good to tell you. You know what I mean?”

“No. I’m completely lost here. Can you help me out by explaining a little more clearly what’s going on?”

She blew out a sigh. “Will you promise you won’t feel like you have to do it? Because it’s just an idea…”

“I’m open to all your ideas, and I’ll take it as well as I can. How’s that?”

“Actually…maybe I shouldn’t say anything.” She shifted from foot to foot, wringing her hands. “My mom told me not to.”

“Maya, there’s obviously something troubling you. Tell me what it is.”

“It’s nothing big. It’s just… Well, Atticus saw this video, and I could tell it got him really excited, because he kept watching it over and over. And…you’re so big and strong. And you go all the time.”

“It’s not getting any clearer,” he said. “Where do I go all the time?”

“Hiking!”

“That’s what the video was about?”

“Yes. It was of a man carrying his friend, who was like Atticus, on his back when he went hiking.”

“Because…”

“Because the disabled guy wanted to go but he couldn’t walk!” she said with some exasperation, as if that should have been obvious.

Finally catching on to where she was going with this, Tobias felt his pulse speed up. “An able-bodied man carried a disabled man because it was the only way he could experience it, too.”

“Yeah. And I thought…” She gave him a sheepish look.

“You thought I could do that for Atticus.”

She nodded. “For his birthday this summer. I bet he’d love to see Yosemite. Mom and Dad took me there for my birthday, and I told him how beautiful it was, and I showed him pictures and stuff, but he didn’t get to be there with us and see it like I did, because there are so many places he couldn’t go.”