Out of Our Hands

Lincoln

I couldn't stop thinking about why I had a missed call from Tanner. He wasn't the type to call, especially at 3 am. Mom, dad, and Bailey seemed to have gotten a call too. Since Bailey lived  I figured he called me because he couldn't get in contact with mom or dad. It's not like Tanner didn't talk to me, just not that much over the phone. Whenever we got together in person we chatted it up. It was always my goal to make him laugh. I do feel like our conversations never go that far though. I always figure that our age gap limits the types of conversations we have sometimes. What worried me the most was that Tanner hated to ask for help or advice. With the call being from  am, I wondered if Tanner was in need for help. As much as I joked with Tanner and picked on him in a harmless way, I was seriously protective over him. I never liked to openly show it the majority of the time, but I was super protective over my brother. I remember one day when I was still living at home and waiting for Tanner to get off the bus. I was 16 years old, and Tanner was 5 years old. The high school was out before the kindergarten and elementary school so I was always able to greet Tanner home. I waited in my truck at the end of the driveway. I saw the bus come to a stop in front of me. I always found it a little concerning how they let the kindergarteners ride on the same bus as all the other elementary school kids. At that point in time, a 5th grader was like a full grown adult to a kindergartener. Tanner got off the bus and sprinted to my truck. The bus driver was yelling at him for not looking both ways before running on the road. I gave Tanner a smile as he got into the truck. 

"How was your day buddy?"

"Good." Tanner responded quietly. It looked like he was trying to hold all of his emotion in. I saw a tear finally shoot from his eye. 

"What happened Tanner?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you crying?" After I asked this, Tanner started sobbing. He wasn't holding any emotion back, my little brother was hurt. 

"Someone hit me at recess." Tanner finally confessed. 

"Who hit you?"

"A big kid." After Tanner said this, I felt my face get super tight. I felt like my head was steaming like a cartoon character. 

"Put your seatbelt on." I put the truck in drive and blasted out of the driveway on route to the elementary school building. When we finally got to the school, I opened up the passenger side door and picked up Tanner in my arms. He still had tears crawling down his face. With Tanner clinging on to me, I walked to the entrance of the school. 

"Mrs. Johnson is your teacher right?" I double checked with Tanner. 

"Yes."

We got to the front door but it was locked. I located the intercom on the side of the building and pressed the button to buzz us in. 

"Hello?" A voice came over the intercom. 

"Hello. I'm Lincoln Richards, Tanner Richards older brother."

"Oh my! Tanner you've gotten-"

"Yeah, yeah," I cut off the voice who recognized me from my elementary school years. "I'm here to speak to Mrs. Johnson." 

"What are you wanting to talk about?"

"Just tell her to get out here, it's about my little brother." I left the entrance and took Tanner to a nearby bench near the front of the building. It seemed like forever before Mrs. Johnson finally came out of the school building to see us.

"Hello Lincoln!"

I picked up Tanner off the bench and walked toward Mrs. Johnson. I also had Mrs. Johnson as a teacher, but I didn't feel like catching up. "Do you know who hit my little brother?"