But then Sam was stepping back and Anika was waving us over. Luca and I stepped forward as she adjusted her glasses and patted down her wild and curly hair. And then I was standing there, and she gently cupped my head in her hands and rubbed her thumbs under my eyes to wipe away the tears.

“Drumlin can have my room, we can share,” I said, and I didn’t even know those words were there until I had blurted them out. Anika shook her head and kept cupping my cheek.

“Hey—that’s not why this happened,” she said.

I started to speak, but Anika shook her head again and looked right into my eyes. “This wasn’t because of anything you or any of us did. It was just . . . what happened, okay?” Anika looked up and behind me, and then Luca was hugging me to his side, and I don’t remember what happened next, except we stayed together for a little while in that white room, where it was just the four of us and the sounds of the hospital all around.

“It’s not so bad—I get all my meals cooked for me!” Anika said eventually, and we all smiled a little too wide, just because we could.

“When are you coming home?” Sam asked, and Anika ran a hand through his shaggy hair.

“Not for a while, baby,” she sighed. “The doctors want to keep an eye on me and Drumlin.” She rubbed her belly, like she was making sure he was still there.

“When will I see you then?” Sam asked, and his voice got a little wonky, like he might cry again.

Anika looked up at Luca, who was running his hand over his head, a worry line forming between his eyes. “I’ll need to be home with the kids, so the station will give me daytime shifts. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to get them here during hospital visiting hours. . . .”

“We’ll get the bus after school,” I said. “And then during the day over the holidays.”

Anika looked from me to Luca and back again.

“Freddo, I don’t know. . . .” Luca started.

“It’s one town over from Pop, and I’ll be catching the bus here for school next year anyway!”

“Mom, I want to—please?” Sam whined, and I felt bad for him.

Anika stroked his hair again and smiled tiredly up at Luca. “I’d like that.”

Luca nodded. “All right, all right! But you need to be careful, okay? I mean it—no talking to strangers, and you come straight from school to here and home again, understood?”

He could never not be a policeman.

Eventually the nurse came around to check the tube that was running out of Anika’s hand and to say that visiting hours were almost over.

“You’re going to be all alone,” Sam said.