She Discovered Too Late novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Through the Glass

The doctor stepped between Teddy and Miriam with his hand out.

"Sir, this is an ICU corridor."

"I know where I am," Teddy said. "I'm here because you're about to cut up my best friend."

Two nurses stopped at the station and stared.

The security guard started down the hall.

"Let him show me," Miriam said.

Her voice was thin. She had not taken her eyes off the pen in her own hand.

Teddy set the tablet on the bench next to Arlene.

He did not look at Miriam while he worked, and I thought that was kind.

"This isn't the one you saw at dinner," he said. "Your brother's phone fell on the floor before you could watch it to the end."

"Colby dropped it," Miriam said.

"Yes, he did."

He tapped the screen.

The stairwell was grey and badly lit. A boy in a green jacket stood at the top of the flight with one hand on the rail.

A second boy came down from the landing above, thin, carrying a backpack.

He was twenty years old.

I had not looked at his face in years.

The boy in the green jacket put out his foot.

The one with the backpack went tumbling down the flight without his hands ever catching the rail.

The boy in the green jacket stood at the top and looked down at him for a long time.

Then he turned and walked back into the building without hurrying.

Nobody in the corridor said anything.

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