Poor man, no one has ever told him it's okay to be here with his pain. To recognize that healing takes time. That life takes time. He carefully kisses the man's brow, the contact tender and lingering before he answers.

"I will always hear you," David said. "And that you fear not to be tells me that your father, and perhaps others, have been quite cruel to you. You deserve better than that, my dear. But it takes time, to change from old patterns of behavior."