When it was our turn, Oren stood in front of the ice cream case and pointed at the mint–chocolate chip. He then held up his left hand with one finger raised.

“One scoop?” the server asked.

Oren nodded.

“On a cone?”

Another nod.

Would he ever talk again? I snuck a glance at him as he watched her lean into the freezer case and scoop his ice cream. It hadn’t been that long since the accident, but he seemed okay. It wasn’t like he was lying in bed, sobbing and devastated. Although… I had just found him crying at the cemetery, so he wasn’t 100 percent okay. Still, right now he seemed almost normal—other than the not-talking thing.

“When did your uncle go back to work?” I asked him.

He tore his eyes away from the ice cream case to look at me. He frowned. I figured it wasn’t very nice of me to try to make him talk.

I thought about how hard it must be for him being in a strange place where he didn’t know anyone. His entire life had changed, in every single way.

“So you’re by yourself all day?” I couldn’t help myself.

“Here you go,” the server said, reaching over the counter to hand Oren his cone. “One scoop of mint–chocolate chip.”

Oren nodded at her in thanks. The server smiled back and then asked me what I wanted. I ordered a scoop of Cookie Dough—my favorite—on a cone. I turned back toward Oren. “So what are you going to do for the rest of the summer?”

Without looking at me, he shrugged and started licking his ice cream.

I was getting frustrated with the shrugs and the nods. I was about to say that maybe he could actually tell me about his plans for the summer when Dad came in.

“Hey, kids,” he said. Just seeing him made me back off. I knew he wouldn’t approve of my nagging. I even answered him in my head. Yes, yes, I know, Oren has been through so much and I need to be patient. But being patient is hard and takes forever!

“One scoop Cookie Dough,” the server said as she handed me my cone. She turned to my dad. “What can I get you, sir?”

He ordered a banana split. “Don’t tell your mother,” Dad said to us, winking. “Besides, bananas make it health food, right?”

Such a dad joke. The server didn’t laugh, but I did see the hint of a smile on Oren’s face—the first one I’d ever seen.

Maybe I could get him to laugh. Everyone likes jokes. Sam and I had shared the same dorky sense of humor and had always told each other jokes. Sometimes we’d laughed so hard that tears came out of our eyes and our stomachs hurt. I didn’t think I could make Oren laugh that hard, but still.

Oren’s phone binged in his pocket.

He placed the cone awkwardly into his injured right hand and tugged his phone out of his shorts with his left. He fumbled with it a little, and I was worried he was going to drop it. I was about to offer to help or be ready to catch it when his shoulders slumped as he looked at the screen.