Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Seconds later, a Newcastle PD cruiser rolled up, and the first thing one of the officers said as he got out of the car was, “Are you kidding me?”
I waved from the porch, and the officers both waved back. When I sat down on the top step—there would be questions for me—I heard the deadbolt unlock, and Griff joined me, taking a seat beside me.
“Good job getting them inside like I asked you and locking the door.”
“I didn’t want to lock you outside, but I figured you would want me to.”
“You figured right,” I praised him, putting my arm around his shoulders.
He leaned hard. “One punch, and that was it.”
“Yeah, but you saw why, didn’t you?”
“They didn’t spread out. They came up the steps bunched up. That was dumb.”
“Yes, it was.”
“Still. One punch. That was pretty good.”
“Violence should not impress you,” I stated flatly.
“Does your hand hurt?” He ignored my comment.
“Just a bit,” I said, flexing it and making a fist before relaxing. “I’ll be fine.”
“Tatum is making Christine and her mom some chamomile tea to calm their nerves.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“She learned that from our mom. She made a lot of tea. She used to have so much, but Dad threw it out first thing after she left.”
“It probably hurt him to see it around,” I offered.
“Yeah,” he said, and his head bumped my shoulder. “But it smelled really good, especially the Earl Grey with lavender.”
“Do you remember where she got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe let’s go get some tomorrow, if you’re not too sore after I help you clean your room and get organized.”
“It’s not as bad as you thought it was gonna be, is it?”
I shook my head in response.
“Listen, Nash—always remember that Darwin’s a narc, and he makes everything sound worse than it is. It’s like his superpower.”
I chuckled.
“I’m not a narc,” Darwin muttered, at which point we both realized, when we turned around to look, that he was standing at the now open front door.
“Oh you totally are,” Griff snapped at him.
Ignoring his brother, he closed the door behind him and then padded across the porch in his socks to take a seat on the other side of me. He leaned as well.
“You all right?” I asked him.
“You weren’t going to let them come in, were you?"
“No, I was not.”
“I knew it,” Darwin said with a sigh. “When the officers go, can we watch a movie?”
“You wanna watch a movie?” Griff sounded surprised.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You always wanna study.”
“Yeah, but tomorrow’s not a school day, so we can stay up later.”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “What movie?”
“I was going to say the Jaws one you were talking about, but I looked it up, and a dog dies in it. Tatum can’t watch it. And I don’t really like it when animals die either. I’m fine with people dying, as long as it’s not a main character.”
“That’s not terrible or anything,” I muttered.
“But don’t let Tatum talk you into any crime documentaries. She’s too young to be watching those anyway. She’s gonna have bad dreams. She’s just a kid.”
“I appreciate the advice, Dar,” I said, and he nodded smugly as we all sat there together and waited for the trash to be removed from the front yard.
FIVE
Sometimes change is gradual and happens over weeks and months. In other instances, it’s abrupt and shakes you up, and that can be good or bad. In the case of the Duchesne household, the events that began with me showing up turned everything upside down in the very best way. They started talking together, and then individually they started making different decisions, and their responses to things altered. And of course I didn’t know any different, but I got observations from each one.
“Griff said I could come in his room with Dar and play Minecraft,” Tatum told me excitedly on Monday night.
His room was clean, I could see the hardwood floor and the great rugs he and his mother had picked out, and now he had space for his siblings.
“Dar came on our walk again,” Griff said to me when we got home on Tuesday night. Griff had stayed home that day from school, but tomorrow he was going. “Two nights in a row.”
“Yeah…” I squinted at him.
“You don’t get it. He never takes time out to do anything but study. I thought his brain was gonna explode.”
I chuckled. “He played Minecraft with you guys last night,” I reminded him.
“That’s true,” he said, studying me.
“What?”
“We need to teach you how to play.”
“I’d rather have to fold your laundry again.”
There had been three loads scattered and in piles on his floor. There had been an endless litany of, Oh, I wondered where that went. I had lamented ever being done, and there was cackling and laughter from all over the house. I couldn’t let him do it alone, though; it would have taken a week.