Page 16 of When the Stars Fall
Jude strode after him and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around to face him. I moved to the porch steps and sat on the top one so I could watch.
“What the hell was that about?”
Brody shook his head. “Just speaking my truth, like your dad said I should.”
“Your truth? Have you been to war?”
“There are all kinds of wars, Jude, and you don’t know shit about any of that.”
“Why don’t you tell me since you seem to be some kind of expert.”
They faced off, their shoulders squared, their eyes narrowed like they were about to rip each other’s heads off.
“Why are you coming down so hard on Jude?” I asked Brody. “It’s not his fault…”
Neither of them looked at me or even paid attention to my words so I didn’t bother finishing my sentence. They were angry about something I wasn’t privy to. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen them disagree. They fought a lot in private but at school, and in public, they were always on the same team and they always stood up for each other.
As Jude always said, they were family and family always came first. It was the McCallister motto.
“I thought you wanted to stay with us,” Jude said, his voice low and angry. I got the feeling that the thought of Brody not wanting to stay cut Jude to the core. He was hurt but trying not to let it show. That’s what boys did. They locked down their emotions. Patrick was always telling them to ‘tough it out.’ “I thought you liked living here.”
“Let me put it this way. I had two choices. Shitty. Or shittier.”
“What’s so shitty about living with us?”
“I’m the stray dog your family took in because my mom is too fucked up to stay clean and my dad…” Brody hung his head and left his sentence hanging.
“What about your dad? I thought you didn’t know him.”
“I know enough.”
Brody turned to go. Jude grabbed his arm to stop him. “What do you know?”
“That’s the thing about speaking your truth. You get to hear everyone else’s truth and it ain’t always pretty.”
“Where’s your dad?” Jude asked again, not about to let this go.
“Prison. Locked up in a cell.For life. Happy now?”
Oh, my God. My eyes widened. His dad was in prison? For life? That had to mean he’d done something really, really bad. Like kill someone.
Stunned by Brody’s answer, Jude released his cousin’s arm. For once, Jude had nothing to say. He rubbed the back of his neck, a look on his face like he was sorry but didn’t know how to say it or what to do to make this better.
“Yeah,” Brody said, shoving Jude’s chest. “So think about that when you’re off fighting a war for ourfreedom.”
With those final words, Brody turned and strode away.
“Brody.” I went to chase after him but Jude grabbed my arm and held me back.
“Let him go. He just needs some time on his own. He’ll be back.” Jude sounded so confident that I wanted to believe him.
I watched Brody cross the field and then he leaped the fence and I lost sight of him. Maybe Jude was right. Maybe Brody needed space. But what if he needed to know we were there for him?
* * *
About an hour after he left,Kate came to the screen door and asked us to get Jesse to come inside for his bedtime. We found him next to the barn, playing with a tiny green lizard he’d found.
“Set it free,” Jude said. “Put it in the grass.”
