Kay David - Silent Witness

“She’s tired,” Andrea answered. “They went to the funeral home and made all the arrangements.”

“Your parents are good people,” he said. “And strong. They’ll come through this just fine.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “You will, too.”

She seemed surprised by his words of praise but she didn’t comment.

“When are the services?”

She told him then fell mute again. The stillness between them could have been awkward, yet it didn’t feel that way to Grant. It felt right. And that, in turn, seemed strange. In all their years of marriage, he and Vicki had never shared a silence like this.

He sat down again and leaned his head against the leather chair. On the other side of the room, Andrea did the same. A moment later, their eyes met over Kevin’s bed.

Andrea looked away first.

SHE WOKE TO THE SMELL of coffee. For half a second, Andrea thought she was back at the fire station, then she opened her eyes. Grant stood before her with a mug, steam rising from the top as he held it out. The coffee was black and hot and she drank it down, her eyes going to the bed and the small boy who still slept.

“He didn’t wake all night,” Grant said. “Barely moved. A couple of times, I actually got up and made sure he was still breathing.” His expression immediately turned sheepish as if he’d said more than he’d intended.

“It’s the painkillers,” Andrea replied. “They have strange effects on kids—they either sleep like a rock or get wired.”

Outside the room, the nurses were talking and laughing, the sound providing a sharp contrast to Grant’s next question. “Does he know Vicki’s dead?”

“I’m not sure,” she said. “I didn’t bring it up because I—I wasn’t certain how to explain it,” she confessed. “Or if I even should.” She raised her eyes, her throat constricting. “How do you tell a kid his mother is gone?”

“I’ve done it,” he said, “but it’s not something I want to do again.” He paused, his voice heavy with dread and the knowledge of what was to come. “He’s got to know, though. One of us has to do it.”

“Let me.” She could tell her words surprised him. They surprised her, too, but all at once she wanted to spare Grant that horrible task. Her reaction might have had something to do with the way he looked. Sometime during the night, he’d gained a haunted look.

Being the man he was, he started to object. “That’s not what I meant! I think—”

She interrupted him. “It’ll be easier for Kevin if I do it. If you tell him, he’d want to be tough and not cry. This isn’t the time for that.”

She could see he wanted to argue but couldn’t because he knew she was right.

When Kevin finally woke up, he was groggy and fussy but he calmed down as Andrea talked to him, his gaze returning continually to the corner where his father sat.

Andrea reached over and smoothed Kevin’s hair after he finished his late breakfast. “Do you know where I work, Kevin?”

He shook his head.

“I’m a paramedic,” she said. “I work at the fire station and ride in the ambulance. When someone gets hurt, I take care of them. It’s a pretty important job.” She stopped briefly as if just now considering the idea. “Maybe when you’re feeling okay, I could take you down there. You could meet the firemen and see the trucks. Would you like that?”

A tiny smile broke out and he nodded again.

“All right, then,” she said. “We have a date.” The explanation of her job brought her momentarily back into the real world. She glanced down at her watch. It was almost noon on Wednesday, the second day of her forty-eight hours off. By now, everyone at the station knew what had happened, but protocol was protocol. She should call in. Immediately she realized she could use the opportunity to phone her mother, too. She looked down at Kevin again.

“In fact, I have to tell my boss where I am, just in case he might need me. The call might take a while so I’m going to step outside to make it. While I’m gone, you can visit with your father, how’s that?”

Kevin’s reaction was instantaneous. He grabbed her hand and began to scream.

GRANT JUMPED to his feet and lunged for the bed, but instead of making things better, this had Kevin shrieking louder. Within seconds, every nurse on the floor had arrived and Grant and Andrea were both pushed into the hall.

Grant turned on Andrea in fury. “What in the hell did you do to him?”

“What did I do to him?” She looked at him with an incredulous stare. “What did you do is the question.”

“What did I… What are you talking about? One minute you were standing there talking to him and the next thing I know, he’s screaming his head off.”

“You didn’t hear what I asked him?”

“No.” He wasn’t about to explain that his mind had been exactly where it’d been the day before—on his growing concern that Vicki’s death hadn’t been an accident. “I…I was thinking of something else. Something to do with…with work.”

She gave him a withering stare, then repeated what she’d said to Kevin. Grant’s mouth fell open and he blinked in confusion.

“Are you sure he understood you?”

“He understood completely. What’s confusing about ‘visit with your father’?”

Grant shook his head in disbelief. He didn’t want to believe Vicki would have poisoned Kevin against him but what other conclusion could he reach?

“Why is Kevin scared of you, Grant?” Andrea asked with suspicion.

“He isn’t scared of me, dammit! I’ve been in the room with him all night long and he didn’t have a problem. You saw us talking yesterday—did he look scared of me then?”

His question stopped her. “No,” she admitted, “he seemed fine at that point.”

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