past the guy who said it and broke into a run and had the street leading to the train yard in sight.
When I made it there, I could feel my heartbeat’s hands, ripping me open.
The street.
Was empty.
It was empty and dark except for the widening light of the moon that seemed to spray down on each forgotten corner of the city. I could smell something. Fear.
I could taste it now.
It tasted like blood in my mouth, and I could feel it slide through me and open me up when I saw him….
There was a figure sitting down, crooked, against the fence.
Something told me Rube didn’t sit like that.
I called his name, but I could barely hear it. There was a giant pounding in my ears that kept everything else ou
Again, I called, “Rube!?”
The closer I got, the more I knew it was him. My brother was slumped against the fence and I could see the blood flooding his jacket, his jeans, and the front of his old flanno.
His hands gripped the fence.
The look on his face was something I’d never seen on him before.
I knew what it was because I was feeling it myself.
It was the fear.
It was fear, and Ruben Wolfe had never been afraid of anything or anyone in his life, until now. Now he was sitting alone in the city and I knew that one person alone couldn’t have done this to him. I imagined them holding him down and taking turns. His face almost made its way into a smile when he saw me, and like a breeze through the silence, he said to me blankly:
“Hey Cam. Thanks for comin’.”
The pulse in my ears subsided and I crouched down to my brother.
I could tell he’d dragged himself to this position on the fence. There was a small trail of blood smeared to a rusty color on the cement. It looked like he’d climbed two yards when it was too much and he couldn’t go on. I had never seen Ruben Wolfe defeated.
“Well,” he shuddered, “I guess they got me good, huh? You must be glad….”
I ignored his comment. I had to get him home. He was shivering uncontrollably. “Can you get up?”
He smiled again. “Of course.”
Rube still had that smile perched on his lips when he staggered up the fence and collapsed. I caught him and held him up. He slipped through me and fell facedown, holding on to the road.
The city was swollen. The sky was still numb.
Ruben Wolfe was facedown on the road with his brother standing there, helpless and afraid, next to him.
“You’ve gotta help me, Cam,” he said. “I can’t move.” He pleaded with me. “I can’t move.”
I turned him over and saw the concussion that surrounded him. There wasn’t as much blood as I’d originally thought, but his face was brutalized by the night sky that fell on him and made him real.
I dragged him back to the fence, propped him up, and lifted him. Again, he nearly collapsed, and when we started walking, I knew he wasn’t going to make it.
“I’m sorry, Cam,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“We’ll just get y’ home, ay.”
“No,” he said, hanging on to me. “Not sorry for this — sorry for everything.” His expression swallowed me.
“Okay,” I said. “We’re okay.”
That was when relief seemed to wash over him and he fell to the ground. Maybe that was the sweetest punch — and the final defeat. “We’re okay, huh?” I had never heard a person so happy in this condition.
We’d traveled only about five yards from the fence.
I rested for a minute as my brother continued lying on his back….
As the moon was smothered by a cloud, I slid my arms beneath my brother’s back and legs and picked him up. I was holding Rube in my arms and carried him up the deserted street.
On the way home, my arms ached and I think Rube fell unconscious, but I couldn’t rest. I couldn’t put him down. I had to make it home.
People watched us.
Rube’s tough curly hair hung down toward the ground.
Some extra blood landed on the footpath. It dripped from Rube onto me and then onto the path. It was Rube’s blood. It was my blood. Wolfes’ blood.
There was a hurt somewhere far down inside me, but I walked on. I had to. I knew that if I stopped carrying him it would be harder to keep going.
“Is he all right?” a young party-going sort of guy asked. I could only nod and continue walking. I