The smile disappears. 

"...All my smiles are real."

They aren't, and now he's never going to be able to unsee it. 

"...okay." 

"I think maybe you should send in the next person."

"Alright.

...I'll tell Ron what you said. Sorry." 

He goes. 

Ron is at the usual place that night.

"Hi! I should probably go to your house tonight, this conversation might take a while." 

He gets into the front seat. 

"That's always something I like to hear," Ron says. "What can I help you with?"

A few girls and Andre are already in the back. 

"I have a message from your sister. And now that I'm thinking about it I should tell Asher how Lev and Sasha are doing." 

"You got Chris to talk about me?"

"I'm pretty sure it only worked because she thinks I'm a lost cause, but yes." 

"After all this time it turns out the secret to getting Chris to talk to me is to find someone who doesn't want to be straight and is for some reason choosing to stay at ex-gay camp anyway."

"It's not torture for me, not like it is for Raine, and if I leave I can't keep an eye on Lev and my chances of getting to see my sister again drop dramatically. And I'm learning welding. Do you want to wait until we get to your house or do you want to hear it here?" 

"Let's wait until we get to my house."

He drives somewhat fast.

Once they get there he'll follow Ron to wherever Ron wants this conversation to be. 

Ron goes into a side bedroom. 

"What did Chris have to say?"

"That she loves you and you should forgive yourself and she's sorry you got a straight sister instead of a gay brother. And that she can't imagine you'd want to hear from her. — she also said I could tell you that she's joyfully serving God but I have seen her smile for real exactly once and it was during this conversation, so." 

"Yes, I imagine he's miserable."

"I... probably shouldn't leave camp too often but I can pass a message back, if you want." 

"I don't know what I want to say. Mostly because what I want to say is whatever string of words will convince Chris to stop making himself miserable."

"Yeah. 

I'm sorry. She — he? — said you probably wouldn't want to hear from him and I told her — if it was my sister I wouldn't care, I'd just want to know she was okay."  

"...Yes. Of course I want to hear from Chris."

"...I don't know how much good it'll do but I'll tell him." Her? Why does language have to be complicated. 

"Chris ran away from home when he was fourteen because he would rather be homeless than have to continue to present as a girl."

This is probably not information Christine wants him to have but at this point he doesn't really care. 

"...do you know what changed? When — he — was at camp?" 

"Chris would rather be homeless than be a girl, and he'd rather be a girl than fail to serve God."