I nodded. “Yes.”
Dad took a seat with me on a concrete bench, and my stomach got all queasy again. I didn’t know why we were out here, or why they’d all separated Batman and me.
“There was an accident, Dorian,” Dad said to me, his voice rough and weird sounding. It sounded like Mom a little bit inside. He folded his hands. “An accident involving Grandpa Lindquist and Grandma Helen.”
“What kind of accident?” My voice was quiet, and I wondered if my dad heard it.
But then, he looked at me full on. He always looked me in the eye. Like he could see me when sometimes adults didn’t always do that. My teachers always made me feel little or invisible, but Dad never did. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “It was while they were away. A traffic collision late last night.”
“Well, are they okay?” My voice sounded funny now, and I turned back toward the house. I wished I had X-ray vision, or some kind of cool tech like Batman. I wanted to see in the house and find Batman.
Dad squeezed my shoulder, and I stared up at him. He shook his head. “They didn’t make it, son.”
His voice was quiet now, but I didn’t understand. Didn’t make it? “Dad?”
He brought his arm around me, cupping my arm. He squeezed. “Do you understand what I’ve told you, Dorian? What this means?”
I gazed away, the wispy tails of the koi moving around in the pond. I nodded. “Grandma and Grandpa are gone.” I stared up at him. “They’re not coming back.”
I wouldn’t get to see them again, and I already didn’t get to see them a lot.
My chest hurt, my stomach like someone punched me again and again. I didn’t realize I was crying until I had my dad’s shirt clenched in my fists, and I sobbed in his chest.
He let me stay there, holding me while he rubbed my back. He held me so tight, my dad’s hugs always solid and strong. They always came when I needed them.
And when he gave them, he didn’t let go.
“What about Charlie?” I heard myself say. Again, I didn’t know how Dad heard me. I sniffed into my dad’s shirt. “What will happen to Charlie?”
“He’ll live with us now, son,” Dad said, hugging me so tight. “He’ll live with us, and he’s going to need us. He’s going to need family.”
I couldn’t hear his words after a while, not over my own tears. I didn’t like crying in front of my dad. He never cried, and neither did Charlie. They were both Batman.
I needed to be Batman.
Chapter Eight
Two months later
Dorian - age 10
Charlie’s room was quiet again that night.
It was like he didn’t exist.
He never left his room, and the house staff brought him all his meals.
Mom and Dad were worried. Especially Mom. I knew because she let Thatcher, Wells, and Ares stay over again tonight.
It was a school night.
The guys came over all the time these days. Sometimes when I just wanted to be by myself too. I heard our dads talking and saying it was best we were all together now. Our parents were all friends, and the last couple months had been bad.
Mom had just stopped crying.
She always did it at night. Before my dad came home from work, she’d be in their room, and her crying made me want to cry again too.
I didn’t. I tried to be strong every time, but I couldn’t help it during the funeral. There’d been two caskets, one for Grandpa and one for Grandma. Dad said they weren’t inside it. He’d also said Grandpa had wanted something where they turned his and Grandma Helen’s body into ash, and Ares got real gory when he explained it to Thatcher and Wells. He hadn’t told them when I’d been around. He’d whispered that one night after they thought I’d fallen asleep during one of our sleepovers.