I sat down. On the driveway. Right there on the concrete. Diane sat down next to me. Jake was still on the hood of the truck. The biker stood over us like he was guarding something.
“We weren’t looking for a party,” Diane said. “We were driving home from a memorial. My nephew’s. His name was Cody. He was 19 when we buried him.”
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She stopped. She looked at her husband. He nodded.
“Two years ago Cody went to a party like this one,” she said. “Somebody handed him a drink. Somebody had crushed a pill into it. He was dead before the ambulance got there.”
I felt something cold move through me.
“We do a drive every year on the day he died. We just ride. We stop at his old school. We stop at the field where he used to play baseball. That’s where we were coming from tonight. We were headed home. I needed a bathroom and Ray saw a house with the lights on and kids outside, and I said, that looks like a party, someone will let me in.”
She laughed but it wasn’t a real laugh.
“They did let me in. A boy about your son’s age. He was polite. He said ‘yes ma’am, right down the hall.’ I used the bathroom and I was walking back out. I was going to just leave. But I passed the kitchen.”
Diane looked at the porch again
Diane looked at the porch again. Then at Jake.
“There was a young man in there. He wasn’t a high schooler. He was older. Twenty-two, twenty-three maybe. He was standing at the counter with his back to the door. He didn’t see me. He had a red Solo cup and he was crushing something into it with the back of a spoon. It was powder blue. Powder blue like a robin’s egg. I know that color. I’ve seen it in a police evidence photo. It’s what killed my nephew.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“He turned around and handed the cup to a girl. She was maybe 16. He said to her, ‘Give this to the tall kid in the blue shirt. The one by the pool table. Tell him it’s vodka Sprite. Don’t drink any of it yourself.’”
Diane’s voice cracked.
“That’s when I saw the shirt through the doorway. Blue Vineyard Vines. And that’s when I saw your son’s face. And I don’t know your boy but I know that face. I’ve seen it on my nephew in every photo I have of him. Sweet. Trusting.”
Jake made a sound from the hood of the truck. Something small. Like he was trying not to be there.
“I picked up his phone off the counter because I saw a text notification on the screen and it said ‘Mom,’” Diane said. “I knew whose it was because I’d just watched him laughing with that girl. I took the phone and I walked out and I called Ray from the driveway.”
The biker — Ray — spoke for the first time in a while
The biker — Ray — spoke for the first time in a while.
“I was already off the bike. I heard her voice. I didn’t need her to finish.”
He looked at Jake.
“I went in through the front door. Nobody stopped me. I don’t think anyone at a party like that ever expects a man like me to walk in. I found your boy at the pool table. He had the cup in his hand. The girl was standing there watching him. I said ‘put it down.’ He didn’t. He looked at me like I was crazy.”
Ray put his hand on his own chest, showing me.
“I slapped it out of his hand. It went across the floor. Then I grabbed him by the collar and I walked him out through that front door and I did not let go until we got to this truck. He fought me a little. Not much. He’s a big kid but he wasn’t ready. Halfway across the lawn he stopped fighting and started asking me what I was doing. I said ‘saving your life, kid.’ He didn’t understand. But he stopped fighting.”
I looked at Jake. His face was wet and blotchy. He couldn’t look at me.
“Jake,” I said. My voice came out like somebody else’s.
“Mom, I didn’t know. I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t know, baby.”
“She said it was just vodka. She was nice to me. She said everyone else was drinking it. I just wanted to — I just wanted to fit in one time. Just one time.”
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I got up off the driveway and I walked to my son and I put my arms around his shoulders and I held him like he was six years old again. He shook against me. Ray stepped back to give us room.
Somewhere in the middle of it I heard sirens. Two police cars pulled up. Ray had called them right after he grabbed Jake. He waved them down and started talking to the officer who got out first.
I heard him say a name. I didn’t catch it the first time. But I heard it again a minute later. Marcus something. The officer’s face changed when he heard it. He got on his radio right away.
Diane came and stood next to me while I was holding Jake.
“They’ve been looking for that boy. Ray showed the officer a picture. I took it from the front hallway on my way out. Ray recognized the name from a news story about a girl who overdosed in the next town two weeks ago. She was 15. She’s on a ventilator.”
Ray was still talking to the officer. He pointed toward the house. Two more officers went inside. A minute later I heard shouting. Then a young man in a hoodie came running out the back across the neighbor’s lawn. An officer caught him at the fence.
Diane watched all of that without moving
Diane watched all of that without moving.
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