older brothers standing by her, arms crossed, curious but strangely indifferent. And his father, furious. “God damn it, where the hell is Max?” he thundered, storming toward the smoky house past the firefighters. I could see them arguing with him and trying to hold him back, but Max’s father disappeared into the front door. Water poured into the house, smoke and flame billowed out through the windows. Within minutes Max’s father stumbled out, alone. I thought Mr. Hallman was a horrible person. I knew how mean he was to Max, and he seemed huge and cruel to me. But then I saw him sitting in the back of the ambulance, shaking, with his face in his hands. I could tell that he was breaking into pieces. His rage had turned into grief. Max never did come out of the house, and the firefighters didn’t find him that night. As the sun came up, they searched through the ruined house for a small, burned body. A coroner’s van was parked out front. When they couldn’t find any sign of him, I suddenly knew where to look. R That morning, I didn’t go to school. I cut through the woods to the fort Max and I had built. There I found him, cold, wet, silent. “Come on Max, I’ll take you home,” I said, knowing that he didn’t have a home any more. “Your parents have been worried all night about you.” He stared blankly into the woods. “I don’t want to go.” “But, Max, we have to. They think you’re — ” and of course, I stopped in the middle of the sentence. “They think I’m dead. I wish I was dead. I would rather be dead than go back there.” I knew why Max said this, and I knew that was why he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “But Max, they really love you. They don’t care about the house. They’ll be so happy when you come home, I promise you.” That was a promise I should never have made. As I led him back into his yard, Max’s mother broke down crying and pulled him close, but his father turned on me. “You knew where he was all along, didn’t you? Didn’t want to tell on him? You two are always running around together, making trouble.” He loomed toward me and I stumbled backwards. I thought he was going to hit me, right there in front of everybody, but he held back his fist. The Page 20
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