Chapter 2 - The Fourth Crossing
The question landed harder than Charlene's accusation. My brace suddenly felt too tight.
"Brody," I said, "don't."
"You always say that." He stood, knocking his chair backward. "You said it at the hospital. You said it at Dad's funeral. For six years you've said don't."
Charlene grabbed his sleeve. "Tell them you were the hero."
He pulled away. "Mom, stop."
The general raised one hand to keep the military police by the doors where they stood. "Mr. Ruddock, answer my question first."
Brody swallowed. "I wrote that Captain Lennox pulled me out after I froze. I wrote that she saved Private Castillo and Sergeant Tillman before she came for me. I wrote that I heard her break her arm under the debris, and that she still went back into the water."
The room had become so quiet I heard a flag rope tap the wall.
"That's not what you said at church," Charlene whispered.
"No. It isn't."
A flash went off in the back row. Someone was recording. I saw Brody notice it, and for one terrible second I thought he would run. Instead he turned toward the stage.
"I also wrote that Sergeant Jonah Owens was still out there. Erin went back for him."
My lungs stopped working.
Six years earlier, a flood had swallowed the access road below Merritt Creek Bridge. Our convoy was moving supplies to a stranded National Guard unit. We should have waited for an engineer survey. The warning sign was down. The river rose three feet in less than twenty minutes.
A truck slid off the road. Castillo went first, then Tillman trying to reach him. Brody followed without a rope. I entered for each of them, swimming through fuel, branches, and pieces of fencing. I still hear the sound of water banging metal like a fist on a locked door.
Then Jonah's radio call came through: "Captain, I'm pinned. Don't come in."
He was twenty-nine. His wife, Leah, had just sent him an ultrasound photo.
I went anyway.
"He was alive when I reached him," I said into the gym's silence.
General Haskett lowered his eyes. He knew the rest. Very few people did.
May you like
Brody stepped into the aisle. "There was somebody else at that bridge," he said. "Somebody who made sure the road stayed open."
The rear doors swung wide. A man in a dark civilian suit walked in holding a leather folder, and Brody's face went white.
