When the old keeper forgot one latch, the 400-pound silverback reached through the steel

him. Tom would have corrected anyone else for saying otherwise. But Linda did not correct him, and neither did I. Accuracy can be a form of cruelty when the heart has managed to bring back only one small light.

Tom smiled at the screen.

“He did good,” he said.

Then the light shifted. His eyes moved from the tablet to me, polite and uncertain, and he asked continue reading …