Te Meeting ...................................Stanley Kim

who jolted awake.

Hugh swung his head towards me. He was out of it—probably medicated. He’d gotten fat. Mom’s cheeks were fushed and her eyes were swollen. She’d been crying.

Dad noted my presence and returned his gaze to the linoleum foor. He knew I could have been here hours ago. If Ollie had died in the hospital that night, it would have been his fault I didn’t get to say goodbye.

“Hey, Mads.” Ollie’s voice was hoarse but undeniably his.

“Hey, Ollie.”

He had a hard time telling the story without breaking down. Tere had been fve of them in the car that night, and he swore there was no alcohol involved—at least for the driver. Tree of them made it out before the engine fre sparked

the fuel line and lit the car up like a New Year’s party. He’d done everything he could. I assured him that was all that mattered. Te blistered burns on his hands were all that kept me from squeezing them. The doctor brought good news. Tey would have to see Ollie every day that week as standard procedure after an accident like this, but unless we wanted to keep him in the hospital, they would discharge him that night. Ollie rode home with Mom. Dad mumbled something about checking in at the ofce and drove by himself. Hugh drove with me.

“Why wouldn’t he come home with us?” I buckled my seatbelt.

“Work. It’s always work.” Hugh slouched in the passenger seat with his feet on my dash.

“How can you relax right now?”

“You know this past day hasn’t been easy for any of us—right? Not just you.”

“Ahh, that’s rich. He didn’t fucking tell me until this morning. Ollie could have died.” “Maddie, you live in Atlanta. You wouldn’t have made it anyway.” “I would have beat you to the hospital by the time you shook your hangover and took your Adderall.” “Look. You’re emotional right now. I get it. Just don’t turn this on me.”

Silence. Poison. Hugh was right. Tis wasn’t his fault. “I still would have wanted to know, even if I couldn’t make it. It’s not fair that I wouldn’t have.”

He had a hard time telling the story without breaking down.

22 Te Talon 2022

Graveyard | Pen Oldham | Tuscon, Arizona | digital photography

Woodberry Forest School 23

Te Meeting | Stanley Kim | Seoul, South Korea | digital photography

“You’re dealing in dangerous hypotheticals, Maddie. Ollie’s alive. You’re here. Try to see where Dad was coming from.”

“He was absent for us, and now he’s absent for Ollie. I wasn’t—we practically raised him. Te least Dad could do was tell me what happened.”

Te car went silent. Hugh and I didn’t like to talk about Dad or his absence or his reluctance to even have Ollie in the frst place. Tey reported Mom’s string of miscarriages very publicly to the two of us. It wasn’t hard to see Dad’s relief every time he sat us down and explained what had happened. It wasn’t hard to catch his subtle disappointment when he told us they’d succeeded with Ollie.

Hugh sat up. “Do you want to see where it happened?”

Street lights lit up the skid marks on the road. You could follow the path the wheels had taken the night before, see where they bumped the curb, overcorrected, hit the telephone pole. I wondered if Dad had

24 Te Talon 2022