I Lost My Son Five Years Ago—But Last Month, A Kid In Angry Birds Pajamas Changed Everything (3 of 11)

The next morning, I walked past Goran’s house on purpose. Arvid was outside with a soccer ball, alone. He looked up at me, that same cautious smile.

“Hey,” I said. “Nice kick.”

He shrugged, kept dribbling. Then, almost shyly, he said, “You’re the man from yesterday.”

I nodded. “That’s me.”

He stopped the ball with his foot and tilted his head. “You look like my dream.”

That hit harder than I expected.

I knelt down. “Your dream?”

He looked around, like checking if someone was listening. “There’s this dream I get sometimes. I’m little. There’s a yellow couch. And a big man reads stories. There’s a card game with numbers that don’t matter.”