He kept it carefully separated from the rest of his equipment.
Back at the hospital, the girl had moved her chair as close as the nurses would allow to the hallway leading toward the twins.
She had accepted water after one nurse promised that nobody was going to forget her mother.
Food was harder.
A sandwich sat unopened beside her while she watched every pair of scrubs passing the doorway.
Whenever someone came through quickly, she straightened.
Whenever they kept walking, she settled back again.
One nurse finally crouched beside her and asked whether her hands hurt.
The girl looked down as though she had forgotten she had hands.
Her palms were red from gripping the wheelbarrow handles for miles.
“A little,” she admitted.
The nurse brought a cool cloth and wrapped it gently around one palm, then the other.
The girl allowed it for less than a minute before asking the same question again.
