“I tried to tell you.”
“I know.”
He looked up at me.
“I tried to tell you without telling you.”
I still think about that sentence.
Adults love asking children why they didn’t speak sooner.
Sometimes they do speak.
They just don’t use adult words.
A few nights later, I woke before sunrise and opened my bedroom door out of habit.
The hallway outside Mom’s room was empty.
Tyler’s pillow wasn’t there.
Neither was his dinosaur blanket.
He had slept in his own bed all night.
Jason eventually called Mom and asked whether he could come over.
When he finally came, he brought no groceries.
No tools.
