Robbers

thirty - four

// thirty - four //

Ryan's truck was parked in his driveway, a hollow square of shallow snow swept beneath it. Julie's Volkswagon was parked beside it, and there were fresh tire tracks imprinted in the layer of snow behind its bumper. It was mid-afternoon, and there was still a heavy curtain of clouds shrouded over the sunrays attempting to peek through.

Ella had driven back from the motel very slowly. She'd needed time to think, and she'd needed time to pull herself together. After leaving Rosie alone in the motel, Ella had cried behind the wheel of the Honda for longer than she should have, still parked in the motel's lot. Now, she was calm and managing to keep her eyes dry. She needed to tell Julie Hunter what had happened to her son that morning.

When Ella knocked, cautiously yet loudly, Julie opened the door almost immediately after Ella's knuckles had pulled away from the wood. The older woman's face was stricken with fear and her eyes were raw with redness, and Ella could see instantly that Julie already knew.

"Come in," Julie half-whispered, her voice cracking beneath some sort of weight as she spoke.

She stepped back so Ella could enter over the threshold, the warmth of the house washing over her and stinging her frozen cheeks. Ella wrapped her arms around herself as she followed Julie into the kitchen, as though she wanted the thick sweatshirt to swallow her whole.

"You know what happened?" Ella asked, though she already knew the answer. One look at the broken expression and glazed tear-tracks on Julie's face was enough to know.

Julie nodded, glassy eyes staring downwards at the marbled countertop. "He called me an hour ago. They wouldn't let him talk for more than five minutes."

Ella's heart sunk inside her chest as she wondered how much Ryan had told his mother. Five minutes was not nearly long enough to explain why they needed to do everything that they had done. She was afraid to ask, because she was worried Julie hadn't had enough time to understand it.

"Were you with him when it happened?" Julie's voice was soft. Her eyes were fixed upon a forgotten mug on the counter, dark brown dregs floating in the shallow, cold coffee.

"Yeah," Ella told her. Her eyes were swelling with tears again, and her vision of Julie was starting to blur before her. She swallowed hard and blinked rapidly before the tears could fall. She had promised herself she wouldn't cry again; not until this was over.

"He didn't make it worse, did he?" Julie asked, her voice started to warp around the lump in her throat. "When they took him, I mean. I – I know he gets angry sometimes, and – "

Ella quickly shook her head, strands of light brown hair brushing against her raw cheeks. "No. He went with them right away. He didn't – he didn't try to get out of it."

Julie was starting to cry again, and Ella wanted to be sick. Her face was turned downwards, as though she could hide the tears that slipped out of the corners of caramel-colored eyes. Mrs. Hunter was falling apart in her own kitchen, the silence of the house pressing against them both, and Ella didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to say because she had helped Ryan with all of it, and now he was the one who was arrested and Ella was the one standing in his kitchen.

"I – I'm sorry, Ella," Julie choked out. She reached up and touched her shaking lips with fingertips already soft from tears. "It just happened so quickly. I knew he was in trouble, but he wouldn't tell me why. And now...and now – "