Timing


Mickey stood on the side of the road, a car whizzed by.  He could feel the tears coming.  They would be in trouble, but that is not why the moist burning started behind his eyes.  Mickey could hear Ben barking and whimpering.  It was the whimpering that got the tears started.  When Ben whimpered by the door, Evan toddled over and put one hand on the knob.  Evan knew better and waited for someone to come to Ben’s rescue.

Today the adults were scarce.  Mickey's father was sleeping off his scotch and they had not seen their mother since Evan was born.   Their father’s sister was tall and had long brown hair that fell over her shoulders, swaying like grass in a field when the two boys wrapped their arms around her neck tackling her to the ground as she exited her car on her weekly stop to drop off groceries and make sure the boys had clean clothes.  She smelled like flowers.

Mickey saw a break in the traffic, his child-brain assessed the width of the four lanes.  Sun was in his eyes, he wiped away the sweat.  A car veered close to his little body and screech a long jolting honk on the horn.  Mickey’s heart raced with the sound pulsing in his temples.  Ben barked. The only crosswalk on County road 32 was at the highway intersection.  Mickey looked in the direction of the highway cloverleaf. The new school was there too.  He was secretly thrilled to go to a school all day and the thought of walking there and back every day tasted like freedom in his mouth already.  Right now, it looked a thousand miles away. A motorcycle tore past, sucking Mickey in its slipstream.  Skidding on his elbows in the gravel, he wiped his face.

 

"Mickey.  Don’t."

"Mickey turned to look at his brother".

"Evan. Stay there."

"Mickey, please, don’t.

"Evan, go back in."

"It’s my fault." 

"Tears ran down Evan’s face."

"No, it’s not.  Just go back."

"Ben! Evan shrieked."

Mickey looked at Ben tilting his head to the right as if to ask a question on the other side of the four-lane.  There was a break in traffic.  He knew he could make it now, making it back, well… that was something for later. He wiped away sweat and dust from the gravel, perched to run.  Timing.  He could bring Ben back, lock the door, he and Evan would play with and their race track when his father stumbled out of his bedroom, he would never know.

"Mickey! Don’t leave me!"

 

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