When Memories Lie

roasting turkey filled every room. I tried to push Leo out of my mind,

er, skipped up to me, her

mily! Uncle Leo cal

ran cold.

ith the football game on TV. His wife, Sarah (a

ch me how to make a super-duper paper airplane, the kin

e. "Jake, did Leo ca

would he? We don't even have his number,

n doorway, added, "She must have d

No, he did! He

ve vivid imaginations, but this felt diff

the adults talking about Leo and incorporated

e you absolutely sure about L

re overthinking it. He's just... Leo. He

feel like I was the only one not in

not* experiencing the gaping hole where Leo should be in my own memory. My childhood fever was the easy excuse, the one they clung to, the one that made me the outlier, the one wi

The pragmatic part of my brain was screaming that this was impossible, a bizarre group misunderstanding. But the part of me that had seen a boy d