Chapter 4 - The Photograph That Told the Truth
I couldn't sleep. After I put Ella down, I dragged out the plastic bin of photos I'd been avoiding for a year.
There they were, the Durango pictures.
Danny grinning into the camera outside the tattoo parlor, a fresh square of gauze taped behind his ear. Sunburned. Nineteen. Sure he'd live forever.
The next photo in the stack showed the two of them at a diner an hour later, maybe a day later. Warren laughing, head half-turned toward Danny like he was answering something. His ear was bare in the light. Nothing behind it. Just the freckled skin of a kid who'd chickened out at the last second.
Danny had teased him about it for twenty years.
I laid the two photos side by side on the kitchen table.
"Six months ago," I said to the empty room. "He grew his hair out six months ago."
I already knew what I was going to do in the morning.
The next day, Warren opened his door in a T-shirt and sweatpants, looking like he hadn't slept either. Ella was home with Kayla.
"I figured you'd come," he said.
"Can I come in?"
He stepped aside. The house was almost unnaturally clean. Danny's travel mug sat on the counter like an accusation.
I stayed on my feet.
"Turn your head, Warren."
"Nora."
"Please. Just turn."
He turned. I looked at the compass rose behind his ear in the flat morning light, and something in my chest loosened and clamped down at the same time.
"When did you get it?"
"Six months ago." His voice was flat. "I should have told you."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I was ashamed."
I finally sat down.
"Ashamed of what? Of missing him? Warren, he was your best friend for over twenty years."
He sat across from me and put both hands flat on the table, like he was bracing for a hit.
"He asked me to get it with him when we were kids. I said no. I was a coward about a stupid needle. And then he was gone, and I wanted to give him the yes I owed him."
His voice cracked. I looked away.
"That's why Ella thought it was him," I said. "She traced Danny's tattoo every night before bed."
"I know. I didn't even remember that until she said it at the pool. I thought I was going to be sick right there on the deck."
I nodded slowly, my eyes burning.
"Thank you for telling me."
"That's it?"
"That's it. For now."
He walked me to the door. On the porch, he stopped and tried to say something else.
"Nora. There's more I probably should say. I just don't know how to say it."
May you like
"Then don't. Not today."
I sat in my car for a full minute before I could turn the key. I'd seen his face when he stopped himself. And I knew whatever he was holding back was the part that actually mattered.
