Four Men Crept Into My Childhood Room, So I Kept My Eyes Shut novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Night I Didn't Knock

I stood in the yard with my keys in my fist and did not get in the car.

Eli slid off the hood and went into the barn without a word.

That left Abel.

"Sit with me," he said. "Please. Then drive."

He dropped the tailgate of the farm truck and sat on it.

After a moment I sat a foot away.

The gravel was cold through my socks.

"Eli told it right," Abel said. "He left out my part."

"Which is what?"

"I was the one Dad asked. The other three just came along." He studied his scarred hands. "He caught me alone in the milk house. He said, Abel, you're the oldest, you hold the line."

"And you held it."

"I did." His voice was flat. "I stood at the top of the stairs that night and watched Clint stand at your door. I watched his hand come up to knock, and I walked down the hall and put mine on his chest."

I shut my eyes.

"He looked at me like I'd hit him," Abel said. "Then he went downstairs."

"Why didn't you knock yourself?"

"Because if I had, I wouldn't have let you go."

The yard was very quiet.

A cow shifted in the barn.

"You didn't say goodbye either," I said. It came out smaller than I meant. "At the bus. None of you."

"We weren't at the bus."

"I know you weren't."

"We weren't at the bus," Abel said again, slowly, "because I was a mile behind it in the truck."

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