Chapter 14 - The Question Ray Had Been Avoiding
Almost a year after the emergency-room visit, Megan asked Ray something difficult.
“Would you have beaten him?”
Ray laughed once.
“Who?”
“You know who.”
He became serious.
“No idea.”
“You trained Marines.”
“That doesn’t make me twenty-five.”
Megan smiled.
“Everyone thinks you could.”
“Everyone likes movies.”
She looked at him.
“But you thought about it.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Ray told the truth.
“Every day for a while.”
Megan’s smile vanished.
“What stopped you?”
“At first? You.”
“And later?”
Ray thought.
“Realizing I wanted to hurt him partly because I felt guilty.”
Megan frowned.
“Guilty for what?”
“For missing it.”
Ray looked down at his tattooed hands.
“If I could punish him badly enough, maybe I wouldn’t have to think about the times you were sitting across from me and I didn’t ask the right question.”
Megan’s eyes filled.
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“It wasn’t my responsibility the way it was his.”
Ray looked at her.
“But I can still wish I’d seen you better.”
Megan reached across the table.
“Dad.”
He looked up.
“I hid it.”
“I know.”
“I got really good at hiding it.”
“I know.”
“You believing me when I finally told you mattered more than you figuring it out first.”
Ray nodded.
That was the answer he needed.
Not absolution.
Perspective.
Then Megan smiled faintly.
“For what it’s worth, seeing Dustin’s face when Owen recognized you was pretty great.”
Ray laughed.
“So you enjoyed that?”
“A little.”
“Good.”
They sat together laughing for the first time about the gym.
Not about what happened to Megan.
May you like
About one arrogant man realizing the old guy he mocked had a history he did not understand.
The difference mattered.
