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“This is a nightmare,” he said.
It could never be simple for him. Things like this.
Until he got there. Until he saw him.
He felt like vomiting. But if he vomited, they were going to have to stop.
“He’s okay, Walker,” Frankie said.
“Maybe. Maybe. But he hasn’t called me.”
“His phone might be broken.”
Yeah. His phone might be broken. If his phone was broken, was something on him broken?
He took a deep breath that he knew sounded halfway to a sob.
“It’s different,” he said. Trying to tell himself more than anyone else. “It’s different when they die. Because somebody just shows up at your door.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. He’s going to be okay. He has to be.”
“I wish I had any optimism in me, Frankie. But everything is just so... It’s dark for me.”
“Then I’ll hope for both of us.”
When they arrived at the scene, there were flashing lights everywhere. Yellow fire trucks from rural first responders and an ambulance, along with two state police cars.
The car was the first thing he saw.
It was mangled, crunched on the side where the front had come into contact with the tree.
“Jesus Christ,” he said, a prayer or a curse he didn’t know. Not in that moment.
And that was when he saw him. Sitting in the back of the ambulance. His head was bleeding, and someone was checking underneath the gauze. His arm was taped to his body.
One of the other boys was standing outside the ambulance. He didn’t see the other. He knew a moment of panic. It was the passenger side that hit that tree.
As soon as Frankie pulled up and stopped, he tumbled out of the car, running toward the ambulance. “Sky. Are you okay?”
“I’m all right.”
“Where’s Armie?”
“They took him in the ambulance already. He was pretty messed up. I don’t know...”
His son started to cry. And right then Walker felt like a failure. He sent his son out into the world trusting things, trusting he would be safe. And he wouldn’t have gone out if he didn’t think he could be safe.
“What the hell happened?”
“I don’t remember,” he said. “I can’t remember anything until after. I hit my head...”
“There was a truck in our lane,” Colton said. “Sky had to swerve. If he didn’t, he would’ve hit the truck head-on. We never would have survived that. It was a fuckinglog truck, Mr. Cole.”
“You did the best you could,” said Walker. “And you’re okay.”
“But Armie’s not. I don’t know... I don’t know if he will be.”
“We need to get you both to a hospital to have you looked over. Colton, did you call your mom and dad?”
