My Sister Stole My Second Life novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: In Front of Everyone

I couldn't get up.

My hip wouldn't take my weight, and Dena was still half under me.

Lyle came across the white stripes with his arms out and his face purple.

"You," he said. "You little..."

Thatcher stepped in front of me.

He didn't swing.

He went in low and caught Lyle around the middle with his shoulder.

Two hundred and thirty pounds of crossing guard went down flat on his back in his own crosswalk.

Thatcher went down on top of him and got a knee on his chest and both hands on his wrists.

"Stay down."

Lyle bucked.

Thatcher leaned his weight in.

He'd pulled an oar for seven years. Lyle didn't move again.

Then Lyle did the smartest thing I've ever seen him do.

He started to cry.

"Help," he said, loud, to the sidewalk. "Somebody help. He's hurting me. That girl pushed my daughter into the road. I swerved. I swerved to miss them, God help me."

The parents on the sidewalk looked at each other.

A big man in a hardware store jacket took a step forward.

"Get off him. That's Lyle."

"Lyle's been doing this crossing since I was a kid," a woman said. "Get off him!"

"He came down that hill with his lights off," I said.

My voice came out small and shaking.

I made it louder.

"He was parked up there behind the hedge. You all heard the engine. He sped up."

"She's lying," Lyle wept. "She's one of those Stanhopes. They hate my family. Ask anybody. Ask my girl."

Every head turned to Dena.

She was sitting up on the frozen grass beside me in his orange vest.

The rusted sedan pulled up crooked across the bus lane with its one headlight on.

Doreen got out without shutting the door.

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