Ground Zero(60)

Richard’s daughter and son followed on Brandon’s heels. Neo jumped to sniff at the Tasmanian Devil Brandon still carried.

“Are you a ghost?” Kiara asked.

“Hush now,” Talisha told her. “Let him be.” She steered Brandon into a bathroom with an old claw-foot tub and a shower curtain on a metal ring. “Get yourself cleaned up, and then we’ll get some food in you,” Talisha told him.

Anthony and Kiara stared at him, wide-eyed, until the bathroom door shut in their faces, and suddenly Brandon was alone.

He stood for long minutes in the middle of the black-and-white-tiled bathroom, letting the stillness settle over him. For the first time in hours, Brandon wasn’t trying to get somewhere or survive. He had gotten used to planes hitting buildings and smoke in the air and people falling from the sky, and now that it was all done he didn’t know what to do with himself.

The silence in the bathroom grew. I should be doing something, Brandon thought. He just didn’t know what. He wasn’t hungry, he wasn’t sleepy, and he didn’t feel like showering. He didn’t feel like doing anything but crawling into a ball and disappearing, but he couldn’t do that.

So he did nothing.

Brandon caught sight of himself in the mirror and recoiled. Richard’s daughter was right—he did look like a ghost, covered all over in fine white dust. But it was more than that. There was a hollow, empty look in his eyes, like he was dead inside.

Was his father dead too? Brandon had seen the building come down. But had his father gotten out somehow before it happened? It seemed impossible, but Brandon didn’t know for sure. Should he be at home right now, waiting there in case his dad came back?

A gentle knock on the door made Brandon jump.

“You okay in there?” Talisha asked softly through the door.

“Yes,” Brandon lied.

He set the Tasmanian Devil on top of the toilet. He turned on the sink faucet and put his hand under the water, watching the blood and dust and grime of the World Trade Center start to wash off him. The hand of a ghost turning back into the hand of a living, breathing boy.

When he was done in the shower, Brandon put on a fresh set of Richard’s clothes. Talisha had rolled up the sleeves and cuffs for him, but they were still comically baggy on him. He looked less like a ghost now, but he still felt empty inside, and he didn’t know if or how he would ever feel whole again. He had been younger when his mother had died, so young that he hadn’t understood why she wasn’t coming back. Brandon was old enough now to understand that his father was probably gone from his life forever. But unlike the last few months with his mother, Brandon had barely had time to say goodbye to his dad. It was still a fresh wound, deeper and far more painful than the cut on his palm.

“Kid, you done in there?” Richard asked through the door.

Brandon hated to leave the sanctuary of the bathroom, but he couldn’t stay in there forever. He opened the door.

Richard had cleaned up too and was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Richard reached a hand out to Brandon, and they hugged again. Neither of them had to ask, or say why.

“Esther’s okay,” Richard said at last. “I just talked to her. She and Anson and Mr. Khoury made it out and away from the building before it came down. Anson’s dog too.”

Brandon nodded. He’d forgotten all about them with all the other things that had happened, and a relief he hadn’t expected flooded through him. That’s three people, at least.

“I need to call my apartment,” Brandon said. His voice was thin and raspy, and he cleared his throat. “I need to leave a message for my dad. In case.”

Richard looked like he might say something, then just nodded. He led Brandon to the phone in the kitchen and left him alone. Brandon dialed his number and waited through the rings, hoping against hope his dad would somehow pick up the phone before the answering machine kicked in.

The call connected, and Brandon held his breath.

“Hey, this is Leo Chavez,” his dad said.

“And this is Brandon Chavez!” Brandon’s recorded voice said.

“Leave us a message!” they said together.

Brandon sniffed. He knew his father wouldn’t be there, but he had wanted so badly for him to answer.

“Hey, Dad, it’s me. Brandon,” he said. Tears came to his eyes, and he blinked them away. “I got out, just like you told me to. I’m okay. I’m with Richard, the guy you talked to. His family’s nice. I’m at their house. If you get this, you can call me back at this number,” he said, knowing the machine would list it.

Brandon paused. He didn’t know what else to say, and the machine was going to cut him off soon. He’s not going to hear this anyway, Brandon thought, choking back more tears.

“I love you, Dad,” he said at last. “Goodbye.”

Brandon hung up and went back to the bathroom and closed the door. He sat on the closed toilet seat until his tears ran dry. Then he cleaned up his face and joined Richard’s family in the living room.

Richard and Talisha sat on the couch watching the news on TV, while Kiara and Anthony played with LEGOs on the floor. Brandon sat on the couch too, and Neo jumped into Brandon’s lap, tail wagging. Any other day, Brandon would have been delighted to play with a dog, but now it was enough to just put his hand on Neo’s warm body and feel his heart beat.