Chapter 24
Lando
The sky is a cloudless ocean blue today.
Harry sits cross-legged beside me, his trainers on the grass behind him.
He’d picked me up from my house this morning and driven us to Wrigsham Cemetery.
He’d packed snacks, a flask of Earl Grey tea, and books for us both to read.
A special edition hardback copy of Emma for me, and a sports personality’s biography for him.
I haven’t quite been able to summon the right words to express just how much this gesture means to me, so we’ve been sharing silence on a blanket beside my mother’s gravestone for the past two and a half hours.
Now and then, and without speaking, he’ll reach across and squeeze my knee, and then go back to reading as though it’s a perfectly normal Friday afternoon activity.
I never felt more . . . at peace, and I realise I could live a thousand lifetimes, fundraise for a million charities, and still I wouldn’t have done enough to deserve this boy’s friendship.