Seconds Away

CHAPTER 15

Again the car ride started in silence. Again Myron had to break it.

“So what time are basketball tryouts?”

“I don’t get it,” I said, trying to keep my temper in check. “Why you?”

“What?”

“Why would you be ‘watching out’”-I made quote marks with my fingers-“for Angelica Wyatt?”

“It’s how I land clients sometimes,” he explained. “See, Angelica Wyatt is leaving her agency. I was hoping-”

“I thought you sold your company.”

“I did,” Myron said.

“So?”

“So it’s complicated.”

“I don’t understand. You, what, get hired out as a bodyguard?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

We hit a traffic light. Myron turned and met my eye. “I help people.”

“Help people how?”

“I watch over them. I solve tricky problems. And sometimes…”

“Sometimes what?”

“Sometimes I rescue them.”

Myron started driving.

“Is that what you think you’re doing with me?” I asked. “Rescuing me?”

“No. You’re family.”

“So was your brother. Why didn’t you rescue him?”

I saw the pain flash across his face. But I wasn’t done.

“You could have, you know,” I said, and it was like a dam broke. “You could have rescued both of them. Mom and Dad. Right from the start. You could have understood that they were young and scared. You could have accepted that they loved each other instead of trying to break them up. Mom could have delivered me and gone back to her tennis. She could have been the great star she was supposed to be. Mom and Dad wouldn’t have had to run away-they could have raised me right here. I could have had a real relationship with my grandparents. You and I, we could have been uncle and nephew. We could have played ball together.”

Myron stared straight ahead. A tear ran down his cheek. My eyes started to brim up too, but I’d be damned if I would let any tears escape.

I didn’t let up. “And if you had done any of that, Mom wouldn’t be a shell of herself sitting in rehab today. She’d be laughing that laugh. And Dad would be alive, and we’d all be hanging out. Do you ever think of that, Myron? Do you ever look back and wonder, what if you had believed in them?”

I felt suddenly spent and exhausted. I closed my eyes. My head dropped back on the neck rest.

A few moments later, Myron spoke in a soft, pained voice. “I do think about that. I think about it every day.”

“So why, Myron? Why didn’t you help?”

“Maybe you can learn from my mistakes.”

“Learn what?”

“It’s like I said before.” Myron pulled into the driveway, his face darkening. “There are always consequences to being a hero. Especially when you’re sure you’re doing the right thing.”