"
"He --!" Davey began, the echoes of his outburst scattering their
father's voice.
"Shhh," Alan said again.
"Daniel, you must love your brother. He loves you. I love you. Trust
him. He won't hurt you. I won't let you come to any harm. I love you,
son."
Alan felt Danny tremble in his arms, and he was trembling, too, from the
icy cold of the lake and from the voice and the words and the love that
echoed from every surface.
"Adam, my son. Keep your brother safe. You need each other. Don't be
impatient or angry with him. Give him love."
"I will," Alan said, and he relaxed his arms so that he was holding
Danny in a hug and not a pinion. Danny relaxed back into him. "I love
you, Dad," he said, and they trudged out of the water, out into the last
warmth of the day's sun, to dry out on the slope of the mountainside,
green grass under their bodies and wispy clouds in the sky that they
watched until the sun went out.
#
Marci followed him home a week before Christmas break. He didn't notice
her at first. She was cunning, and followed his boot prints in the
snow. A blizzard had blown up halfway through the school day, and by the
time class let out, there was fresh knee-deep powder and he had to lift
each foot high to hike through it, the shush of his snow pants and the
huff of his breath the only sounds in the icy winter evening.
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