Out of Time: The Family That Lost Me novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Microphone

Shelby carried the microphone down the steps of the stage and put it in my father's hand.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Dad said.

My mother stood above us with her hands open.

"Russ, please," she said, off the microphone, in a small voice.

Dad ignored her.

He looked out at the sixty faces.

"Good evening," he said. "Most of you know me. I fixed your furnaces."

A few people laughed, uncertain.

"I'm sorry to take over. Diane planned a nice night, and I'm going to ruin it, and I'd like to say why."

The room was very still.

"My wife told you my daughter steals from this family."

Nobody moved.

"I've been told the same for six years. I believed it, because it was easier."

His voice shook, and then steadied.

"Mallory has paid our mortgage since she was twenty-one. She paid my medicine. She paid her brother's rent. She has never once asked for a thing back."

A woman at the front table put her hand over her mouth.

"I found out this month, at my own kitchen table, from her bank statements. I'm ashamed it took her carrying them in."

"Russ," my mother said. "You're confused."

"I'm not, Diane."

He said it with such flat tiredness that two people at the back looked down at their laps.

"Colt," Dad said. "Come here."

My brother walked down the steps with his hands at his sides.

He stood next to the wheelchair, and Dad took hold of his sleeve.

"Tell them what you told me."

Colt took the microphone.

It shook so badly the speaker hummed.

"I didn't graduate," he said.

A sound went around the room, a low rustle of chairs.

"I didn't graduate, and I'm not going to. I failed statistics two times. I stopped going two years ago. Ohio State withdrew me."

"Colt," my mother whispered.

"I work at a tire shop," Colt said. "I'm good at it. I'm a technician."

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