Chapter 10 - I Watched From the Steps While Dad Stopped Him Leaving
I heard the trunk before I saw it. That low thunk out in the driveway and then the gravel crunch under Tyler's shoes. I had been sitting on the stairs with my socks pulled up wrong, listening to the house go too quiet after supper, when Dad walked past me fast and said, "Stay here, baby," and went for the front door.
I didn't stay.
I followed him to the screen and pushed it open just enough to slip out. The air outside was cool and smelled like cut grass and car exhaust. The porch light had just clicked on. Moths were hitting it. The sky over the garage was that dusty purple color it gets right before it goes dark.
Tyler had his black duffel bag open on the back seat of his car. His suit jacket was off and his sleeves were pushed up. He kept looking back at the house like he wanted it to stay quiet.
Dad stopped at the bottom of the steps. He didn't yell. His voice was low and tired.
"You packing up on us?" he said.
Tyler didn't look at him at first. He folded a shirt too many times and set it in the bag. "I told Vanessa I'd only stay through dinner. I got work tomorrow."
"You've got eyes too," Dad said. He stepped closer on the gravel. "At the table, when Emma pointed. You didn't look at Emma. You didn't look at Vanessa. You looked at the cabinet behind you. Like you were trying not to look at something."
I held my breath on the steps. My pocket felt heavy against my leg even though there was nothing big in it. Just the little thing I kept touching to make sure it was still there.
Tyler let out a short breath and leaned both hands on the car door. "Come on, man."
"I'm not trying to fight you," Dad said. "I need to know what you heard before we sat down."
For a second there was only crickets from the side yard and a car going by out on the county road. Tyler shook his head, then stopped shaking it. He stared at the driveway lines.
"I was getting ice," he said finally. "From the pantry. You guys were still upstairs changing Emma's dress. I heard them in the kitchen. Vanessa and Emma." He paused and swallowed. "It wasn't just talking. Vanessa's voice went up. Sharp. And Emma started crying. That little trying-not-to-cry sound."
My hands went cold. I remembered the pantry light buzzing and the cereal boxes too close and her hoop earring catching that light.
Dad didn't move. "What did she say? Exactly."
"I didn't hear every word," Tyler said. "I heard Vanessa say something like, you better not, and if you tell. Then a cabinet shut hard. I walked in and it was over. Emma was by the sink rubbing her arm. Vanessa was already smiling again. She laughed it off. Said Emma was being dramatic about spilling sugar."
Dad's jaw moved. He looked back at me for half a second, and I tried to make my face small so he wouldn't send me inside.
"You saw Emma crying and you sat down to dinner like nothing happened," Dad said.
Tyler's face flushed. "I didn't know what it was. She's my sister. I figured it was a discipline thing."
"She asked you to back her," Dad said. It wasn't a question.
Tyler looked down at his shoes. He nodded once. "After you took Emma upstairs, before dinner. In the hallway. She grabbed my arm. She said, please just back me up if Daniel asks. Say it was nothing. She said Emma makes stuff up when she wants attention."
The moths kept hitting the porch light. Dad put his hand on the roof of Tyler's car and left it there.
"I am asking," Dad said. "If it comes to it, will you tell the truth about what you heard?"
Tyler zipped the duffel halfway and then stopped. He looked tired, younger than his suit. "I can't get in the middle of your marriage. You don't know what she's like when she's scared she's going to lose everything."
"One more day," Dad said. "Don't leave tonight. If Emma needs someone else in this house who heard it too, I need you here."
Tyler stared at the house, at the warm windows of the dining room where the plates were still on the table. He pulled the duffel out of the back seat and set it down on the gravel by his feet.
May you like
"One day," he said. "I'll stay one more day because I heard it. But I'm not confronting her. That's on you."
Dad nodded. He reached out and squeezed Tyler's shoulder once, then let go. I slipped back toward the screen door before they turned, my heart thumping so loud I was sure they could hear it from the driveway.
