Graveyard ......................................Pen Oldham

It Took Something

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fction by Pen Oldham

I’ll never forgive Dad for waiting until morning to tell me about Ollie’s accident.

Mom, I would have understood. She’s always had trouble delivering bad news. Te wine bottle was her companion through tough times— not us. Dad was supposed to be the honest one. He’d always respected my right to know what was going on, even though he seemed to care more about his job than his children. But the ofcer had talked to Dad that night—just the two of them.

Tose red and blue lights must have fashed in his face for hours, but Dad still had made the choice to wait until morning before telling me, Ollie’s sister, his oldest sibling. I was there for his birth, his frst steps, frst words, frst day of kindergarten, and I’d be there for his graduation later that year. I’d drop everything for Ollie. Dad wouldn’t—didn’t.

When I got to Raleigh, one tank of gas and fve hours of driving after the phone call, Ollie was conscious. It should’ve taken me six, but I rode that threshold where the dotted lane lines blur to solid white all the way through Georgia and the Carolinas. Tat rage from being last to fnd out screamed through the ambient sounds of the highway and the silence of my car.

Ollie looked so little in that white hospital bed. His toes poked out at the bottom of the sheets and his curly—now matted—blond hair fanned out in every direction on the pillow. Braces held his neck, head, and right arm in place, but his still eyes communicated every emotion that he needed them to.

“Oh, Maddie. Come. Sit.” Mom scooted over on the fake leather bench and elbowed Hugh,

Woodberry Forest School 21