N.A.M.I.

Chapter Six

Bob knew he should address Tommy’s statement but the problem was he didn’t know how.  He could tell Tommy “Daddy didn’t kill the man son”, or” I am sure the man is ok bud”.  However he didn’t know if either of those statements was true.  Tommy had always idolized him and he knew it.  The first time he had to tell Tommy that he had lost a job was devastating to Bob.  Not because Tommy overreacted with disappointment, but because he told him “its ok daddy”.  Bob had a hard time with the changes in roles of his son comforting him.  He vowed then and there to never let anything like that happen again.  A vow he broke four more times as he struggled to find work. 

“Why did you kill him dad?” Tommy blurts out again and brings Bob back to the task at hand.  He faced his son and the look of confusion on his face let him know he could not ignore the question.

“Tommy I didn’t kill him.  It’s like in one of your video games I just knocked him out.  He might have a bad headache tomorrow, but that is it.” Bob spoke with a false confidence hoping that Tommy would buy it.

“But why did you have to fight him?” the look of tragedy was fading from Tommy’s face as he spoke.

“He was trying to stop me from getting to your sister bud.  I had no choice”.  As he spoke the realization that one of his children was still unaccounted for sent an icy pain down his spine.  He knew that things were only going to continue to escalate, and the survival instinct of humans can become primitive and aggressive quickly.  His recent encounter was a testament to that.  Fighting was not foreign to Bob though.  He was a state finalist wrestler in high school and was known to use his fist to solve problems when he was a younger.  He had a short lived but promising amateur boxing career.  The family farm required too much time for him to devote a lot of extra hours to training or anything else to be perfectly honest.

“Why are we driving in the ditch?” Tommy’s boy brain was quickly distracted by the splashing water and hard bumps.  Bob couldn’t have been happier.  The feeling of lying to his son even under the circumstances made him feel sick.

“The roads are just too busy and I want to get Tabby.  She will be scared enough and the longer she has to wait the worse.”

“Scared of what dad?”

Bob held his breath and wish he could skip back in time 5 seconds and rephrase his response.  He knew he would have to tell his boy what was happening but not now.  Not until his family was whole.  He needed to break this down in manageable tasks it like a construction job.  There is site prep, utilities, foundations, and then the construction.  Telling Tommy was not step one. He was in site prep, the part where he gets his family together and gets clear of this panic.

“Why is she scared daddy?” The fear started to creep back across Tommy face as he spoke.  Bob extended his hand and gently squeezed the back of Tommy’s neck.  He didn’t break his stare at the ravine in front of him.  The reservoir wall came into view and he knew the school was only and a half mile due east.  He pressed on the gas pedal and began to ascend up the incline to his right.  It was steep and the truck felt as if it could tip over at slightest wrong move.  As the cab peaked up over the concrete wall his eyes were met with the signs of mass hysteria.  There were people heading in every direction.  He saw what seemed like a multiple car pileup that had traffic in grid lock.  People were just abandoning their cars and taking off on foot.  How did it get this bad this fast? 

The truck clunked up on the sidewalk and bounced like one of those toy horse sets on springs he had as a boy.  The ditch was a direct path to the school, but it had apparently done a job on the suspension system of his truck.  Bob scanned the environment looking for a hole to sneak through to get to his daughter.  Every time he saw an opening it seemed to be swallowed up by another car or group of people.  Although he didn’t like the idea it looked like his truck would now be more of a hindrance then a help.  It was under a mile to the school and it looked as if they would be on foot from here on out.  Before he left he wanted to check the radio.  He had turned it off so Tommy wouldn’t hear anything but he needed to know more about what was going on.  He reached back to the pocket behind the passenger’s seat and pulled out a 3 DS gaming system and the headphone that came with it.  He switched it on and tossed it in Tommy’s lap.