FOCUS
What do you do when
head. He didn’t make it.” I watched Ellen in stunned silence. Steven
dead! How? Why? She buried her
head in her father’s shoulder and
sobbed.
No! Steven couldn’t be dead.
Watching my best friend and her
father, I was an intruder — out of
place, with no one’s arms wrapped
around me.
I got into Coach’s van and watched Ellen and her father wrapped in a silent embrace, until we turned the
corner and they disappeared. Would my dad get out?
Would he ever come home?
When I got home, our cook waited with dinner for
two. He’d heard something on the radio, but he didn’t
know what to do.
The phone rang, but Coach beat me to it. I clung to
his elbow, waiting. “Thank you,” he said. “Yes, we understand. ... We will. Good night.”
“They got out,” he told me.
“They’re at the British Embassy.”
My father wasn’t dead. He
wasn’t a hostage. He was safe!
Did he know about Steven? What
was it like?
At 6: 57 p.m., Dad walked
through the door. He brought in
an overwhelming stench of smoke
and a face solemn as the black ash lining his rumpled
clothing.
He shook Coach’s hand and said simply, “Thanks.”
I looked down at his shirt. There was blood on it.
“Dad, did you get hurt?”
He touched the blood and looked back at me. “I ...
it’s the Marine’s.” His eyes filled with tears.
Without thinking, I put my hand on his arm. He patted my hand. I said, “I know he’s dead. Steven’s dead.”
That’s when my father put his arms around me, and I
began sobbing. ■
they kill your father?
To whom do you turn to
ask if you’re safe?
