The Summer I Left novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: His Face
Brynn reached him first.
"Nate, honey, sit down," she said into the open microphone. "You're overwhelmed. It's okay."
"No," Nate said.
He said it quietly, but the whole hall heard it.
He walked to the podium with his hands at his sides and took the microphone from her fingers with both of his.
She let him.
Nobody in that room had ever heard him say more than a few words at a time.
"I want to say who I am afraid of," Nate said.
He was looking at the floor.
"It is not Drew."
Dad took a step.
"Nate, son..."
"Please do not talk, Dad. I will lose my place."
Dad stopped.
Nate drew a breath that shook all the way through.
"Before I came here I lived in Toledo, in an apartment, with a man and a woman. The woman was kind. She died when I was seven. The man stayed. He died in February."
The hall was dead silent.
"The man hit me when I did not do what he wanted. He hit me with his hand and with a belt. I learned to look at his face to see which one was coming."
Mom made a small sound.
"He had a face," Nate said. "I see it every night. It has gray eyes, set far apart, and a line between them. When he was angry the line went deep."
He lifted his head.
For the first time that night, Nate looked straight at me.
He was crying, and he did not stop looking.
"That is Drew's face," he said. "It is exactly Drew's face. When Drew turns toward me, I do not see Drew. I see him. My body screams before I can stop it."
A woman gasped at the front table.
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