“Hollering filthy names at him, how he was praying to God that Dougie had drowned.”
“I had always told myself that my father really loved me no matter what. But now I knew...”
“I had the heavy police-issue flashlight we were using to search the houses,” Steve interrupted. “I just hit that vicious old man on the head with it, only to shut him up so he would stop hurting Dougie! That’s all I wanted to do, shut him up. But he fell like a stone.”
“Dead before he hit the water,” Doug said. “Whiting out the code on the door was my idea. I used Dad’s paint to cover the zero, then sprayed on the ‘1 D’.”
Then he began to cry. “I loved my father. Why did he hate me so much? What’s so terrible about me?”
His friend held him in a protective hug. Julian gave me the raised-eyebrows sign and we left them to assail their demons.
Getting back into the car, I asked, “Where are we headed now?”
“I could use a good night’s sleep.”
“Me too.”
Copyright © 2006 Tony Fennelly