“Warning.”
I smiled.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You look smug.”
“Occupational hazard.”
He laughed.
Then became serious.
“I don't think I would've done that before.”
“Probably not.”
“You really could soften the honesty.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Didn't think so.”
He stood.
At the door he stopped.
“Rachel.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not destroying me.”
I stared at him.
“I didn't save you either.”
“I know.”
“You did that part.”
He nodded.
“That might be worse.”
“How?”
“Means I can't blame you.”
I smiled.
“Exactly.”
He left.
A year after Memorial Day, the family gathered again.
Same backyard.
Same grill.
Same folding tables.
Different atmosphere.
Derek arrived in jeans.
My father stared.
“No uniform?”
Derek opened the cooler.
“I’m off duty.”
Dad looked toward me.
I shrugged.
Grandma Evelyn smiled.
“Miracles.”
Derek pointed at her.
“You’re getting meaner.”
“I’m getting older. Saves time.”
Aunt Rebecca brought Thomas’s old toolbox.
Investigators had returned it after cataloging everything.
Inside were a few tools.
Receipts.
Photographs.
Nothing secret anymore.
She placed it on the picnic table.
“I thought Walter should have this.”
Dad touched the handle.
Then shook his head.
“No.”
Rebecca looked confused.
“Why?”
“It belongs to the boys.”
Derek looked at Todd.
Todd looked back.
Neither moved.
Then Derek opened it.
At the bottom was a photograph.
Thomas.
Young.
Holding a screwdriver in his teeth while crouched beneath an electrical panel.
Walter stood beside him laughing.
Derek stared.
“I’ve never seen this.”
Dad sat.
“I took it.”
“When?”
“Summer of eighty-nine.”
Todd leaned closer.
“Dad looked twelve.”
“He acted twelve.”
Rebecca laughed.
For a while, everyone told stories.
Not the investigation.
Not the crash.
Thomas.
The person.
He hated tomatoes.
He cheated at cards.
He once rewired Grandma Evelyn’s doorbell to play “Jingle Bells” in July.
He loved terrible action movies.
He could fix anything except relationships.
Grandma said that last part.
Then looked at Dad.
“Runs in the family.”
Dad nodded.
“Yeah.”
Later, after dinner, Derek found me near the fence.
“You leaving?”
“Soon.”
“Where?”
“Can’t tell you.”
He rolled his eyes.