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I pet Gunner. “Cross your paws, buddy. If this works, we’ll get our happy, call-you-out-on-your-shit Chevelle back.”
28
“YOU’RE PROBABLY NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS.”
Chevelle
I arrive at Mom’s gravesite. My brothers and my dad are already there, standing around waiting for me. I do not like being in this role. I like being the one who calls these meetings.
“Hello,” I say with zero enthusiasm.
“Hey, Chevelle.” Adam hugs me.
Then each of my brothers hugs me too. They’re not normally that affectionate with me. Here we go again with them treating me like damaged goods. But I don’t say anything. Instead, I take my place at the end of the line they’ve formed in front of Mom’s grave.
“X?” Cade says, putting Xavier on FaceTime and passing his phone to my dad.
Usually when we’re here, we each take turns talking to Mom, and I call out to the brother who can’t get his head on straight. My dad sits on a bench nearby, holding the phone with Xavier’s face on the screen. I read my mom’s gravestone for the millionth time, sighing when I read how young she was when she died.
Fisher takes a small safe out of his duffel bag and puts it on her gravestone. “I found this in the basement.”
“What is it?” Adam asks.
“It was Mom’s,” Fisher says.
They all look at me, and I roll my eyes.
“What? And you just found it now?” Cade looks at our dad.
“As I explained to Fisher, whatever’s inside, your mom put it in there when she had a health scare about two years before she passed. Obviously everything turned out okay with her health, but when she put that safe together, she was convinced she was sick.”
“Dad says we all have to agree on whether we want to open it or not.” Fisher looks at us one by one.
“This seems unfair since I’m in San Francisco,” Xavier says. “I could have flown… no, I couldn’t.” He pushes his hand through his hair and sighs. “My vote is to open it. If there’s something in there specific to me, just keep it until I come home.”
All eyes go to Cade. “I say we open it.”
“Adam?” Fisher asks.
He nods. “Open.”
“Open,” Fisher says for his vote.
Again, they all look at me.
I’m scared to see what’s inside, but I’m not the kind of person who can walk away without knowing. “We should open it.”
Fisher picks it up, and my dad pulls a drill out of the bag sitting next to him.
“Okay then. You all agree. But before we open this, I want to say something.” My dad holds the phone out to Cade, who takes it and turns it so Xavier’s looking at our dad as he hands the drill to Fisher.
“Go ahead, Dad,” Adam says.
“Your mom loved you all. You were her life. During this health scare, she was so worried about dying. Worried about leaving you all and not seeing you grow old. The relief when we found out it was nothing to worry about was one of the happiest days of our lives. And then the accident happened a couple of years later. She got two years more than she thought she’d have with you.”
I lower my head. She could’ve had our entire lives.
“I feel like we need to talk this through as a family. We’ve dodged this conversation for years, and it’s about time we put it to rest, here and now. Chevelle!” my dad barks.
