I heard Derek slow down.<\/p>\n
The sound of his engine changed.<\/p>\n
I could hear something moving inside his truck.<\/p>\n
Then he spoke.<\/p>\n
"I'm pulling in."<\/p>\n
I checked the road ahead.<\/p>\n
Another light.<\/p>\n
Another line of cars.<\/p>\n
I was still too far away.<\/p>\n
"Derek?"<\/p>\n
"Yeah."<\/p>\n
"Can you see Noah?"<\/p>\n
"Not yet."<\/p>\n
I swallowed.<\/p>\n
I wanted him to say something reassuring.<\/p>\n
I wanted him to tell me my son was standing at the window.<\/p>\n
That he was safe.<\/p>\n
That the whole thing had somehow been misunderstood.<\/p>\n
But Derek did not say any of that.<\/p>\n
He told me only what he could see.<\/p>\n
The house.<\/p>\n
The driveway.<\/p>\n
Nothing more.<\/p>\n
I knew my brother well enough to recognize what he was doing.<\/p>\n
He was staying focused.<\/p>\n
I had seen that same expression on his face at the garage.<\/p>\n
When something went wrong with a vehicle, he did not start guessing.<\/p>\n
He looked.<\/p>\n
He listened.<\/p>\n
He checked what needed checking.<\/p>\n
And only then did he move.<\/p>\n
I was glad he had that kind of patience.<\/p>\n
I was also terrified of what he might find.<\/p>\n
"Derek, listen to me."<\/p>\n
"I'm listening."<\/p>\n
"Noah sounded scared."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"He said Travis used a bat."<\/p>\n
"I heard you."<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes for half a second.<\/p>\n
The image had been in my head ever since Noah called.<\/p>\n
A grown man holding a baseball bat.<\/p>\n
My little boy trying to protect his arm.<\/p>\n
I did not know exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n
I had not seen it.<\/p>\n
All I had was the voice of a frightened child.<\/p>\n
And I believed him.<\/p>\n
Completely.<\/p>\n
My brother's engine stopped.<\/p>\n
For a moment, the line went quiet.<\/p>\n
Then I heard the sound of his truck door opening.<\/p>\n
A short pause.<\/p>\n
A heavy slam.<\/p>\n
I knew that sound.<\/p>\n
I had heard it hundreds of times.<\/p>\n
At my house.<\/p>\n
At Derek's garage.<\/p>\n
In parking lots when we met for lunch.<\/p>\n
It had never frightened me before.<\/p>\n
Now it meant he was getting out.<\/p>\n
He was at my house.<\/p>\n
Close to Noah.<\/p>\n
Closer than I could possibly be.<\/p>\n
I pressed the phone harder against my ear.<\/p>\n
"Derek?"<\/p>\n
"Still here."<\/p>\n
I heard his shoes on the driveway.<\/p>\n
One step.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
I imagined the distance from his truck to my front door.<\/p>\n
I knew that distance well.<\/p>\n
I had carried groceries across it.<\/p>\n
I had carried Noah across it when he fell asleep in the car.<\/p>\n
I had walked it on ordinary evenings without ever thinking about how many steps it took.<\/p>\n
Now I listened to every one of Derek's footsteps.<\/p>\n
I remembered Noah's voice again.<\/p>\n
"Dad, please come home."<\/p>\n
I had told him I was there.<\/p>\n
That was what I had said when he called.<\/p>\n
But I had not been there.<\/p>\n
I was across town.<\/p>\n
And I could not change that.<\/p>\n
I could only keep driving.<\/p>\n
I looked at the road.<\/p>\n
Then the clock.<\/p>\n
Then the road again.<\/p>\n
My brother was moving up the driveway.<\/p>\n
The dispatcher had already sent the police.<\/p>\n
I had told them everything Noah said.<\/p>\n
There was nothing else I could do from behind the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
Nothing that would put my hands around my little boy any sooner.<\/p>\n
So I listened.<\/p>\n
To Derek walking.<\/p>\n
To the faint sounds around his phone.<\/p>\n
To my own breathing.<\/p>\n
And I waited to hear whether he could find Noah.<\/p>\n
I did not know what was happening inside the house.<\/p>\n
I did not know whether Travis had hurt him again.<\/p>\n
I knew only that Derek had reached the driveway and was walking toward my son.<\/p>\n
I held on to the phone.<\/p>\n
And kept driving.<\/p>\n
I heard Derek slow down. The sound of his engine changed. I could hear something moving inside his truck. Then he spoke. "I'm pulling in." I checked the road ahead. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41426,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416\/revisions\/41426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}