Chapter 8
Jacob stumbled out of the train station like a ghost.]
The distant wail of the departing train shattered something inside him.]
He curled up in the backseat of his car and broke down sobbing
Back in the neighborhood, everything looked the same
Kids were playing tag in the yard, laughing like the world hadn’t ended.]
Jacob’s eyes burned as he walked past them.]
He opened the front door-
-0
The living room was empty.]
No Ethan scribbling homework at the kitchen table.
No me cooking dinner a few feet away.
Jacob collapsed on the old twin bed, burying his face deep in the blankets.
Days passed.
He didn’t leave the room.]
Just sat there clutching the stack of cardboard models his son had made.
Every time he came home, Ethan would hold them up and ask so carefully.]
“Dad, can you play with me for a little while?”
And what had he said back then?
He said,
I’m tired. I’ve got stuff to do.“]
Play by yourself.
He remembered how Ethan’s eyes turned red, how he sniffled but didn’t dare cry.]
So little, yet already so heartbreakingly grown–up.
Something in Jacob’s chest twisted–0
Then again-
And again, until the pain bloomed sharp and constant.
Memories came rushing in, stabbing him from all sides.
He forced himself upright.
But then-
He saw a warm light glowing in the living room
He stepped out.
Ethan stood there, bearing at the stack of cardboard in his arms.
“Dad, will you play with me now?“]]
Jacob’s heart leapt
He nodded quickly, and they both knelt down, laughing and building on the floor
He looked up
I was sitting beneath the lamp, sewing a brand new navy blue backpack.]
A kock shattered the moment
He turned-
And we were gone
Gone the we’d never been there at all}
He called out our homes in a panic
But the room stayed silent
The knocking grew knuder
Then come a lamalar valce finen outude-
Jacob? Jacob, are you in them?
She was burtied up in a wool coat, prebing in through the wedow
Jacob yanked the curtains shut, sealing himself inside.
He wanted to block out the neighbors‘ pitying eyes.
But in that dark room, time lost all meaning.
He’d promised Tyler he’d go to his school orientation, just to keep the kid from being embarrassed.]
“Jacob, it’s Tyler’s big day.”
“You said you’d take him this afternoon, remember?“]
Jacob rubbed his aching forehead.
The sunlight filtering through the blinds made him squint.]
That dream had been too perfect.]
Too cruel
He dragged himself to the door.
When he opened it, Lillian was standing there, eyes full of sympathy.
Tm sorry, Lillian. I’m not going today.”
Her face crumpled with confusion.]
“What? But… you promised Tyler…
Jacob sighed, rubbing his temples.
Ethan’s dead.”
A flicker of annoyance passed through her eyes, but she kept pushing.
Tyler told all his new friends you were coming.
They’re expecting you.“]
Jacob shook his head wearily.
Tell them I got deployed.”
Tl meet his friends another time–if there is one.
1
He’d broken that promise to Ethan so many times.]
And Ethan never once complained.
Jacob had assumed all kids were that understanding.
He’d dearly overestimated Tyler.
And Litban
Sull, she kept pressing-
“But if Tyler ditches his friends today, they’ll say he liedЛ]
No one I want to hang out with him, if they think he’s a liar,”
ar 1
Kids can be brutal
One butiken promise, one slip–up, and you’re out
But turk eyes drified to Ethan’s empty desk.
Actul jou like that, inflatever light was left in them vanished()
All his but was passending to be some eber dad!
The resumed op
“What did you just way
kie maze dropped, sharp and inhal
