You’re staying in the truck.”
Wayne’s big, the nose tackle on the football team. He could easily put me down, leg or not, even if I could rush for the door. But Jake is my brother, and I’m the one who’s supposed to bring him home.
“He won’t know who you are,” I say. Whether it’s true or not, I can’t say. But I set my face, trying to convince him.
“You’re not hearing me,” he says.
“You’re right, I’m not,” I say, trying to get out of the truck.
Mallory calls my name from the back. “Maybe you should let Wayne go. If Jake’s in there, he’ll find him.”
“I need to do this,” I say, ending the conversation as I lower myself carefully to the ground, ignoring Wayne’s cussing. When we’re standing in front of the truck, I put my hand on his shoulder. “In and out, I swear.”
The trailer is set off from the rest of the park. Its windows are papered in thick black, and the yard is littered with metal folding chairs. Half an engine is propped up on cinder blocks, and a grill, covered with beer bottles, is filled with dirty water. The whole place smells like eggs. Before we come up on the porch, Wayne stops me.
“Thomas, for real, these guys aren’t the type who like dudes just showing up.” He hesitates and says, “So don’t look at anything, don’t say anything. No matter what. Cool?”
I nod, and Wayne steels himself, making fists with his hands and then releasing them. He breathes deeply once before knocking on the door, a flimsy, almost cardboard thing that shudders with each rap. Nobody answers right away, and I’m about to push in front of him and knock louder, harder when the door flies open.
Jerry Lee, who looks like Wayne, but with a sharper face and a shaved head, appears in front of us. When he sees Wayne, he grabs him by the neck and drives us both off the porch. The pain is like a spike in my leg as I try to keep myself from falling in the dirt. A large dog runs to the door, barely getting past the frame before a piece of plastic cord jerks him back inside. He goes nuts as Wayne stumbles to his feet and pushes his brother.
“What the fuck, Jerry Lee?”
“Me? The hell you doing here?”
“We’re looking for his brother, jackass,” Wayne says.
Jerry Lee stares at me, wiping his nose with the side of his hand. “And who the hell are you?”
“He’s—” Jerry Lee cuffs Wayne on the side of his head once, laughing when Wayne raises up like he’s about to throw a punch.
“I didn’t ask you.” He turns back to me. “Well?”
“Thomas Bennett.”
Jerry Lee gives a theatrical laugh. “Oh, shit, soldier boy’s your brother?”
I take a step toward the porch—I’ll push my way through the door if I have to—but Wayne stops me with a look. It’s angry but mixed with something else I don’t at first recognize: fear. He holds his hand out, like he’s approaching a wild dog. “Becky Patterson told us he went with Clem, so I thought—”
“You thought? Nah, you didn’t think,” his brother says. “If you were thinking, you wouldn’t have brought him here.”
Wayne shakes his head but doesn’t respond. I try to look past Jerry Lee, into the trailer. When I do, he jumps toward me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“I want to talk to Clem,” I say.
As soon as I say the words, Wayne groans.
Jerry Lee looks at Wayne and shakes his head. “You’re a goddamn idiot. But fine. You guys want to talk to Clem? All right, let’s go talk to Clem.”
He holds the door open without ceremony. I limp past him, but Wayne hesitates, only following after Jerry Lee starts to leave him outside. The trailer is small, a long rectangle of rooms stacked side by side like a railroad car. The dog drops its head and walks toward us, whining. When neither of us reaches for it, it turns around and lies down on a dirty pillow underneath the window air conditioner unit. Everything in the room is on: the television, the microwave, every light in the small trailer.
“Clem’s in the back,” Jerry Lee says. Wayne tries to follow me, but Jerry Lee stops him. “You’re not looking for your brother. Sit down.”
He points to a ripped-up couch, covered in dog hair, and then points me down the hallway. “Go on.”
I follow the hallway and slide open a fake