“Was it you who called them?” his father demanded, grabbing Kyle roughly. “What did you tell them? Answer me! Now!”
“I told them you did it!”
His father slapped Kyle hard across the face. “I ought to kill you!”
“Don’t hurt him! Leave him alone!” Verity begged, yanking on his father’s arm.
Kyle pressed a hand against the burning cheek. “I had to, Dad, I had to.”
“My own flesh and blood! Damn you! You’re in this, too! You’re an accessory! You know that, don’t you?”
Sheriff Bray pulled at his father’s arm. “Ed! Let’s go!”
“Coming?” His father called over his shoulder as he started to the door.
“No,” Kyle said.
“Then you’re a fool, and you’re no son of mine!”
Kyle held the hand to his cheek long after the door slammed behind his father. Long after the sheriff’s car disappeared. Even while he watched the TV screen and heard, with an ache in his heart, that the bombing was thought to be the work of right-wing militias operating out of northern Michigan.
Verity took the hand from his cheek and held his cold fingers in hers. “You tried your best.”
“I didn’t stop it. It went off anyway!” He could hardly speak for the pain.
“You saved a lot of people! It was the brave thing to do, the right thing,” Verity said.
“They’ll find my dad. He’ll go to jail—because of me!”
“Kyle. Listen! Stop torturing yourself! You did the right thing!”
Did he? He remembered his father’s words, only three days ago, that he should live by his own drummer, not by what others told him to do. And he had.
But—oh—how it hurt. And oh—what a terrible price to pay.
Kyle opened the newspaper Verity had pressed in his hand as he waited for the flight bringing his mom and Brian to Michigan. They would stay until the authorities finished questioning him. Then they’d return to L.A. together. The headline read:
53 Dead, 119 Injured
in Lansing Bombing
Photos showed his father in handcuffs, the federal building in shambles, the dead and injured being carried out on stretchers.
“53 Dead, 119 Injured.” Horrible, horrible. But if he hadn’t acted—then what?
About the Author
Gloria D. Miklowitz is the author of more than sixty fiction and nonfiction books for young readers, some of which have received both national and international awards. Much concerned with contemporary issues that affect young adults today, many of her books deal with such important themes as war, racial injustice, dating violence, and militia involvement. Gloria lives in La Cañada, California, and travels frequently for school visits and conventions.
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