Sometimes, during the time she lived with ma and pa after the fire, Laura would find herself starring out of the window and look wistfully and the boys playing outside Perry's school, and she knew it wasn't just her injury from the fire which caused her eyes to become foggy.
"Laura, come here." Carefully ma led her over to sit in Mary's rocking chair.
"Oh, Laura." Ma said, sitting down in her own rocking chair.
They said like that for a while, just rocking gently back and forth, before Laura broke the silence.
"Will it ever stop ma, the pain?" She asked.
Ma replied by reaching out to turn Laura's head so she looked ma in the eyes, then she hesitated, clearly thinking over what to say.
"No, Laura." She said sadly. "The pain will never stop. But one day it will no longer feel as if your heart has been torn to pieces, because your little boy will always be there."
"Like Freddie is in yours?" Laura asked, thinking of her baby brother.
"Yes." Ma smiled, "Just as Freddie will always be in my heart. A mother never forgets."