The rest of the Saturday afternoon passed rather uneventfully, and Andrew went to sleep early without dinner. In the morning, Helen wakes him up.
"Andrew, wake up!" She says.
Andrew opens his eyes, as if he was already awake.
"What happened?" Helen asks. "But first, I want to say that you shouldn't skip dinner anymore."
"Sorry." Andrew responds. "I haven't slept all night, I pretended to sleep when you tried to wake me yesterday."
Helen lets out a brief sigh and sits down on his bed. She looks around the room. Stuff from inside the box are littered on the ground, and the three letters are stacked on one another on the bedside table.
"I think I know what happened." She says.
"I read a letter from my family." Andrew starts. His emotions are vacant after yesterday. "Even though you told me about people having panic attacks and such, I still decided to read it. I was done after one letter, however."
Helen remains silent for a while.
"Well, it was a good choice not to continue with the other letters. When the time comes we will read through them together, okay?"
"Yeah."
Andrew and Helen have breakfast together, after which they start Andrew's walk training again. He mostly walks around the room, from the bathroom to the window. Standing up and sitting down are also becoming part of the routine, so he doesn't have to carry the rugged mat everywhere.
Afterwards they have lunch together, and Andrew grabs the card from the bedside table. He opens it and shows the picture to Helen.
"So this is your family?" Helen says.
Andrew nods. He has lost the mental strength to cry, and just plainly looks at the picture, while Helen is reading the letter.
"Did they pick out the right stuff?" Helen speaks up cheerfully, after reading it.
"I guess so." He responds.
"I understand your feelings, Andrew."
Helen leans to him, and holds him around his stomach.
"I have to say, you cope with your frustrations in a good way. I've known people who bottle everything up, even realisations like this, and they think they can get away with it. All of them burst out in emotions at one point, all of them at once."
Andrew smiles for a brief moment, and starts holding her tight.
"In the upcoming week I'll be helping you get around the centre, and let you explore on your own too. Afterwards, we'll read the other two letters together, okay?"
Andrew holds her tighter, and starts crying. Helen doesn't say anything in return. She sheds a tear as well.
"We'll get you through this, … "
[Together.] "Together."