Finally he pulled away from me. I reached over to the storage rack, grabbed a packet of tissues and pulled two out—one for each of us.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

He sniffled as he wiped his eyes. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel,” he said. “One minute I’m with you and it’s like life is normal again. But then I remember that they’re dead and everything sucks. Then I feel guilty for ever having fun. Even just laughing. Because they’re dead and they can’t have fun anymore.”

I nodded, my throat tight with emotion. I still managed to say, “They’d want you to have fun. They’d want you to be happy.”

He looked down at the wet tissue in his hands. “It feels wrong though. Like I don’t deserve it.”

“Maybe…” I took a breath. “Maybe you should try to go to therapy. You know, just once?”

“Hey, my uncle told me this morning that your parents called and invited us to come on your camping trip.”

Yes! Finally my parents had put my plan into action! Although…I stared at Oren for several blinks, trying to figure out what one thing had to do with the other. “That’s great, but huh?”

He looked at me and a little smile turned up the corner of his mouth. “Sorry, that was random. He said you asked your parents to invite us because I didn’t get to go to wilderness camp.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But what does that have to do with therapy?”

He twisted up his mouth. “He said we can go if I agree to go to therapy.”

“Oh,” I said, not saying out loud that I thought it was a good bargain. “So what does that mean?”

“It means he’s totally bribing me,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “But whatever. I really want to go camping.”

“So…” I looked at him questioningly.

He shrugged and made a face. “I guess I’m going to therapy.”

I gave him another hug because I was thrilled about both things.

“That is amazing, Oren! I’m so excited!”

He nodded. “We’re getting our own campsite. Uncle Jared says we need some time to bond and get to know each other.” He made a face, like he thought the bonding thing was a bit much, though I knew that deep down he probably wanted that too. “But we’ll be near you, and we can do marshmallows and canoeing together.”

“That is such good news, Oren,” I said.

“I know, but…” He looked over my shoulder at the fridge again. “I…keep…keep thinking about what you said…that some people need closure by looking at the dead person in the casket?”

My heart sank. “Yeah?”

He pressed his lips together. “I think…I think I need that.”

I grimaced. “Are you sure?”

He took a deep breath. “I think so.”

“You can’t just ‘think so.’ You need to be sure sure.”

“I’m sure sure.”

“Fine.” I didn’t love the idea, but he was determined. “Let’s open the door together.”