The Wreck Read Free Page B

would be all right but
couldn’t bring himself to make such a promise just then. “They’re going to take
you to the hospital to make sure you’re okay. Your parents will meet you there,
so you won’t be alone.” He wiped the tears on his cheeks. “I’m going to go home
to wait for my parents, but I’ll be over to see you just as soon as I can.”
    She never looked at him or acknowledged
she had heard him. Fear worked its way past the numbness and settled like a
block of ice in his gut.
    Lieutenant Collins rested his hand on
Brian’s shoulder. “Let the paramedics take care of her. She’ll be okay after
they get her to a doctor.”
    As Brian kissed her cheek and then her
lips, he wondered if either of them would ever be okay again.
    “Officer Beckett is going to give you a
ride home and wait with you until your parents get there, all right?”
Lieutenant Collins asked.
    The medical examiner approached, but the
lieutenant held up his hand to stop the other man until he had Brian settled.
    Brian nodded and was led to one of the
patrol cars. Since the road leading to his house was blocked, the emergency
personnel cleared a path to allow the cruiser through. On the brief ride home,
it occurred to Brian that this horrific night would come down to a matter of
minutes. Had the others left the pizza place a minute or two later, maybe they
would have arrived safely. Only two bends in the road separated the place where
the lives of his brother and their friends had come to a fiery end and the
split-level house where he and Sam lived with their parents.
    If Brian and Carly had left the willow a
few minutes earlier, they would’ve already been at his house and wouldn’t have
witnessed the aftermath. If Brian hadn’t been worried about the teasing that
seemed so ridiculous in hindsight, maybe he and Carly would have lingered at
the willow a while longer and wouldn’t have seen it. Minutes and seconds,
making all the difference between life, death, and purgatory.
    Because he had given his keys to Sam,
Brian had no way to get in the house, so he and the patrolman sat in uneasy
silence in the driveway.
    While they waited, Brian continued to
play the “what if” game as his mind raced with scenarios that somehow might’ve
brought about a different end. If he and Carly hadn’t been so anxious to be
alone, they would’ve been in the car, too. Remembering how Sam had teased him
about taking “a walk” with Carly had Brian sobbing again with the kind of
helpless, massive grief from which there’s no escape once it wraps itself with
maddening finality around those who are left behind.
    They were the last words he would ever
hear his brother say. Ever. Sammy . The numbness began to wear off, and
Brian cried the brokenhearted tears of a young man who’d lost his only sibling,
the one person in the world who shared most of his memories, his very best
friend. He had a lifetime to mourn the others. For right now, he could think
only of Sam.
    “Is there anything I can do?” Officer
Beckett asked.
    Brian shook his head but couldn’t speak.
    Thirty long minutes passed during which
Brian wasn’t sure what he wanted more—his parents to get there because he
needed them or for them to stay away for that much longer, to be protected from
what they would hear and how it would change them forever. He was grateful they
would be coming from the other direction and wouldn’t have to drive past the
accident scene. By the time they finally pulled into the driveway behind the
cruiser, Brian had decided that Sam had gotten the easier end of this deal.
    His father came rushing out of the car.
    Brian and Officer Beckett got out of the
cruiser. The expressions on their faces stopped Chief Westbury in his tracks.
    “What?” he whispered, touching Brian’s
face and then his chest, as if to confirm his son was safe. “They said there
was an accident. What happened?”
    “Dad,” Brian said, his voice breaking.
“It’s Sammy.”
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