“Cham tells us,” Sal corrects me.

“Uh, okay, well…” I glimpse my reflection in the window. My hair is a frizzy mess, and my eyes are practically swollen shut. Add the crown and I look like I hunt baby animals for fun. “Cham is tired today too,” I say, recalling the restless sleep in the chair by my dad’s bed. “Just like so, so, so tired.” She had a nightmare that turned out to be true. “And Cham is scared,” I hear myself say. I take the plastic crown off, and some of my hair catches in it. “Cham is really, really scared.” Sal looks up at me with a little frown. I get up quickly and wipe my eyes. Why did I have to turn something silly into something depressing as hell? “I should go.”

Sal picks at one of the dark green sequins. “Sal is scared too.” Her voice wavers some but holds. For a moment I’m afraid she’s going to cry, and then I’ll really have done it. Instead she sits up straighter and pulls off one of the dark green sequins. It flutters to the bed. “You know, it’s okay to be scared,” she says with authority.

I turn back toward her and then look at Brendan. He nods. “Brendan’s scared most minutes of most days. That’s why he carries a spare pair of underwear.”

“Ew!” Sal hoots. “Maybe Brendan needs a diaper!”

I laugh with them and place the crown back in the suitcase, feeling lighter somehow, but also heavier. Like I’ve sunk into a deep part of myself that I’ve been fighting against. After an eternal heartbeat, Brendan says to Sal, “I think it’s time for Sal and Cham and Brendan to rest. How about some checkers?”

“I get red!” Sal is back to the elation that greeted us.

“You guys rest while playing checkers?” I ask, a smile returning despite myself. “How does that work?”

“Well, sometimes it’s a lot to be a Brendan—”

“And a Sal,” she pipes up. “So we give that Brendan and that Sal a break, and this Sal and this Brendan take over for a while. Don’t worry, she’ll come back,” Sal says quickly as I try to keep a nonjudgmental look on my face.

“Brendan’s going to be himself his whole life,” Brendan says to me. “Sometimes I relieve him of that.” They start playing checkers and I think about that. I’m going to be myself for my whole life too.

Brendan beats Sal in about five minutes. “No sick-kid privileges,” he says, hopping over her last piece.

“Aw, man.”

Brendan folds the board up and opens the suitcase. “Brendan and Cham gotta go now,” he says. “Is Sal ready to come back?”

She scrunches her eyes closed and takes the dragon head off. “I’m back,” she says. Brendan pockets his mustache and gives her a high five.

“I’m back too. See you later, Sal,” Brendan says, then to me with a smile, “It’s time for Cham to come back too. Come on.” He holds out his hand to me. Before I know what I’m doing, my hand is in his.