Chapter Six

It's a funny thing, how sometimes tears can help you see more clearly and heartbreak makes everything seem so much more real. Because the truth is, we become who we really are when we fall apart. We give up for a moment, or longer, and we stop trying to be something else. We're true when we're broken. We don't hide. When we hit the ground, we can't get up by ourselves. We need other people. But everyone falls apart.

Poor Cat. She had never even met Chelsea Shapiro. How was she supposed to feel anything in that moment? She couldn't cry, or mourn, or anything. But Robbie cried. Robbie cried forever it seemed. If Cat knew anything about the oldest Shapiro daughter, she knew that she loved her little brother, and he loved her. So much.

"Robbie, don't cry," the redhead begged.

"Don't tell me not to cry, Cat," Robbie snapped hysterically. "I'll cry if I want to. Okay?"

"Kay, kay…" The distraught boy heard her quiet answer and lifted his face out of his wet hands. He looked up at the sober-looking girl with remorseful, cloudy eyes.

"I-I'm sorry," he muttered. "I just…"

"No, Robbie," she cut him off. "You're right. You can cry if you want to."

"I shouldn't yell at you, though, Cat. It's not right."

"Nothing's right about what happened, Robbie," Cat told softly. "But I love you. And Chelsea loved you." Robbie nodded thoughtfully. "I'm sure she was very pretty, Robbie."

"She was…"

"Imagine how pretty she is in heaven now, Robbie!" the little girl tried to be optimistic. She received a skeptical look from her friend. "No, Robbie. You have to imagine. Here…" She kneeled down next to him and faced the direction he was facing. "Close your eyes and imagine," she prompted, and he did as he was told. "Don't you see her, Robbie? Don't you see your sister?"

"I… I see her," he nodded.

"She's mighty beautiful, isn't she?"

"Yeah… She is…" The two sat, leaning on each other with their eyes still closed, and Cat reached for Robbie's hand and slowly took it in her own.