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“Katy? Darry? You ‘kay?” Wayne called out.
There was a scrambling at the back, then he heard Katy ask, “What happened?”
“F—ing degens ran us off the road. How’r’you now?”
“Good’n’you?”
“Not so bad. Tree came through the front windshield and pinned me, but that’s all. You injured?”
“My head’s bleeding a bit, but everything else is fine,” Katy answered.
Thus assured, Wayne called out to the other person who had been in the truck. “Darry?”
There was a long silence.
“Darry, you better not be f—in’ with me, bud.”
Still no reply. Not even a groan came from the other side of the cab. With the tree in the way, the only sign Wayne had that Daryl hadn’t gone through the windshield was the glimpse of blue coverall he could see through the thick branches.
The back of the truck shook slightly, meaning Katy must have hopped off. A few moments later, she appeared outside his door, hair bloody but otherwise seeming mostly alright. She tried the handle, but it was jammed and couldn’t open. Instead, she hopped up on the sideboard, peering in through the window to see Wayne’s position.
Up close, he could see the bloody lump on Katy’s head, and the way her pupils weren’t quite the same size. She’d said she was okay, though, and he trusted her. As long as they could get out of here pretty soon, she’d be fine, and then he’d drag her down to the clinic so they could look at her. Darry too, if he didn’t start talking soon.
“F—-, you’re really stuck in there, big brother.” Katy sounded almost admiring. Her glassy eyes drooped for a second before she pushed them open again, looking over at him.
He squashed his worry down. He couldn’t move, so the rest of this was up to her. Katy was strong, and he’d trust her with anything, even concussed. “I know. Now go over there and tell Darry to start talking to me, please and thank you.”
“Ten four.” She hopped down from the side of the truck, wavering once she hit the ground. Wayne watched worriedly, wondering what to do if she fell, but Katy kept her balance and disappeared out of his sight around the side of the truck.
A few seconds later he heard her voice on the other side, asking, “Darry?” followed by her muttered cursing.
He heard the truck door open. “Hey, Darry, wake up.”
“Katy?” Darry sounded confused, barely audible even in the small space. “What’re you – doing here?”
“We’re in the truck, Dar. Some f—in’ degens ran us off the road.”
“Oh.” There was the sound of shifting fabric, then a sudden groan. “F—, that hurt.”
“What’s going on over there?” Wayne called. He strained forward, trying to see, but the branch across his chest was still pinning him firmly in place.
“Wayne?” Darry asked.
“Can confirm.”
“One of those branches hit Darry’s leg and it’s bleeding worse than that time he fell out of the tractor onto his arm and the bone broke through the skin,” Katy said. “I’ve put pressure on but it hasn’t stopped yet.”
“F—, Darry. Don’t do things by half measures, do you, bud?” He tried to lean forward again, but was no more successful than the last time. He could still only see blue fabric, now with a strip of bare skin that must belong to Katy.
“Gotta be – in it – to win it – good buddy.”
Wayne took a moment to think about that one. It was either that or worry about the way Darry’s voice kept shuddering with pain, and he’d never been much of a believer in worrying about things unless you could do something to fix them. “Well. In this case. I think winning it would be not being injured at all. So getting yourself stuck by a tree branch would not, so’s to say, be winning it.”
“Oh, bother.”
There was a long silence. Wayne felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and tried to reach for it, but couldn’t move his hand enough to get it out. All his attempts did was make the branches rustle. “Katy, you got your phone on you?”
“Already tried, big brother,” Katy’s voice floated across from the other side of the cab. “Screen’s cracked, won’t turn on.”
He nodded. Of course Katy would have thought of that already. “Darry, you got your phone on you?” No response. “Darry, when a man asks you a question, you answer him.”
Wayne heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. “Wake up, Daryl,” Katy said sharply. Darry groaned. “If you try and fall asleep on me again I will f—ing fight you.”
“Yes, Katy.”
“Darry, do you got your phone on you?”
“Yeah, in my – pocket.” Sounds of shifting fabric again, and a bitten off hiss of pain. “Here.”
A minute later, Wayne was listening to Katy tell Squirrelly Dan where they were and what had happened, trying not to worry about the way she was slurring some of the words. After all, no point in worrying about things unless you could do something to fix them. And right now he could no more fix Katy’s slurring or Darry’s hitching breath than he could summon a unicorn to get the tree branch off his chest.
Though that did make him think of something. Once Katy had finished her call and confirmed Squirrelly Dan was on his way with help, he asked, “You wanna know what? Why don’t we call unicorns ‘unihorns’?”
“Good buddy?”
“The ‘uni’ in unicorn is for one, right? So where’s the corn come from? Why don’t we just call them unihorns?”
“Ssso we should have a unihorn at Darry’s super soft birthday party next year?” Katy teased.
Even knowing it was a tease, Wayne still frowned. “Hard no. It’s tradition, and –
“– you don’t f— with tradition,” they all chorused.
“I’m just sayin’ it’s odd, is all,” Wayne continued, frown easing slightly now the importance of tradition had been affirmed. “It should be a unihorn.”
“Maybe it didn’t – just have – one horn.”
“It did have one horn.”
“Not the horn – on its head. The – other horn.”
“Itsss dong,” Katy added.
“Junk.”
“Sschlong.”
“Bone – Ranger.”
“Bone appétit.”
“Bone Star.”
“Home Abone.”
“Bone Sur– Survivor.”
“Wouldn’t the bone survivor be the person who had been boned?” Wayne interrupted.
They all paused to contemplate that.
Wayne returned to his earlier point, leaving that discussion aside. “But, Darry, are you saying that the unicorn, which otherwise entirely resembles a regular horse–“
“–apart fromm the horn.”
“–and the shiny – white coat.”
“–and the sssparkles.”
“–which apart from those things, entirely resembles a regular horse, happens to have more than one penis?”
“Well, yes – Wayne. I am.”
“Well that’s just f—in’ ridiculous.”
“‘Sss what he sssaid, Wayne,” Katy murmured. She was starting to sound tired, and the slur in her voice was getting stronger. “Y’know Darry.”
Wayne did, indeed, know Darry, so he let the matter rest and stared at the small gap between the branches where he could see Darry’s blue coveralls and Katy’s arm. He would have given anything at that moment to be able to cross past the barrier and actually see them, know for himself that they were okay and would make it through this. Talking was some consolation but the less they talked the louder the silence seemed, and the more he wondered what his life would be like without his two favourite people. It almost wasn’t worth thinking about.
“Darry...” Katy’s voice was barely a whisper, but still sounded loud in the quiet that had fallen over the truck. “Things’re getting fuzzy...”
Wayne’s throat closed up. Even at her most hammered, when she was sixteen and drunk a bottle of Gus’n’Bru just to prove she could, Katy had never sounded that disoriented.
Darry’s terrified voice came through the branches, more clear than anything he’d said so far. “Katy, if you fall asleep on me now I’ll... I’ll pull your hair!”
A tense silence.
“...you wouldn’t dare.”
Wayne breathed out. Katy didn’t sound quite present, but she was at least responding again.
“Well, that’s neither here nor hair.” Darry sounded relieved too, enough that Wayne could hear the smile in his voice. Even the hitch in his breathing had faded enough that he managed the full sentence without needing to pause and brace against the pain.
More to break the tension than anything else, Wayne continued the game. “You gonna leave it up in the hair?”
“I’ll keep it hair and square.”
”You’ll be worse fffor hair,” Katy mumbled. Wayne heard an odd sound, and after a moment’s thought, recognised it from long winter evenings when they were kids and Katy had insisted on teaching them her new favourite braid; Darry was stroking Katy’s hair.
Despite the situation, Wayne couldn’t help letting a little of his smile slip out. “There you’ll be, not a hair in the world, then she’ll come along and give you a right hair.”
“Well that’s not hair.”
“What’s not hairrr ‘bout it? You pull m’hair, I’ll beat you fromm here t’ hair.”
“It’s still not fair.”
“Yess, it is.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yesss-uh!”
“No-uh!
“Yesss-uh!”
“No–“ Darry broke off with an aborted sound of pain.
A few seconds later, Katy’s voice came again, soft and confused. “What’re we fightin’ ‘bout?”
“‘M not – pullin’ – your hair.” Darry’s breathing was shuddering again, this time even worse than before.
“Oh. Good.”
They both settled into silence, and Wayne’s worry grew. Neither of them sounded like they could stay conscious much longer, and no matter how much he repeated to himself that there was no point worrying about things unless you could do something to fix them, it was hard not to worry when he couldn’t do much of anything else.
“Katy,” he called, desperation making his voice higher, “Katy, you need to stay awake.”
No response came from Katy.
“Darry, wake up Katy.”
No response came from Darry either.
“Katy! Darry!” He shouted as loudly as he could, but still got nothing in response. He kept shouting, pushing at the branch separating him from his family, hoping that eventually something would work and he wouldn’t lose the two people dearest to him.
By the time Squirrelly Dan arrived, he had no more voice left to shout with.
“Wayne!” Squirrelly Dan jogged up to his truck window, puffing. “Wayne, how’re you nows?”
“Not so f—in’ great, Squirrelly D,” he whispered as loudly as he could manage. “Go check on Katy and Darry.”
Dan nodded rapidly. “Will do, Wayne.” Calling out behind him, he added, “Joint Boy! Tyson! Grabs the tools froms the truck! Wayne’s stuck in heres perts near completelys!”
Wayne heard him rounding the truck, then opening the door on the other side. Immediately he broke out into a torrent of swearing, some of which Wayne hadn’t ever heard before. A low groan came, and his tone abruptly changed. “Miss Katys? Miss Katys, wake up for me.” Nothing. “Miss Katys, I means no disrespects, but we’re goings to have to moves you to gets to Darry.”
Joint Boy and Tyson appeared at Wayne’s window, and from there it was only the work of a few minutes to cut him free from where he’d been imprisoned for what felt like hours. The whole time they were working, his attention was over on the other side of the truck, listening for a voice replying to Squirrelly Dan’s. It didn’t come.
As soon as he was free, he jumped down to the ground, then almost fell as his legs gave way beneath him. After so long sitting in one position, his legs had fallen asleep. He waved away Joint Boy and Tyson’s looks of concern. “I’m fine. Katy and Darry are the ones who need help, so f—in’ get at ‘er.” They looked at each other, shrugged, and went around to the other side of the truck. As soon as his legs recovered, he joined them.
The first thing he saw was Joint Boy lifting Katy out of the truck, and his legs almost gave way all over again. She looked so pale and small, the blood in her hair clumping together and making it swing oddly. As Joint Boy came closer, Wayne could see the lines of pain that had stayed on Katy’s face even into unconsciousness.
By the truck, Squirrelly Dan and Tyson were having a quick but quiet argument over the best way to pull Darry out of there without making the bleeding worse.
Joint Boy nudged Wayne with one shoulder. “I’m taking Katy to the hospital. You coming with her?”
“Yeah, I– Wait, I– ‘Kay, I–“ Wayne was torn. As much as he didn’t want to leave Katy alone, he was equally reluctant to leave Darry. Darry had worse injuries, but Squirrelly Dan would be with him, while only he could go with Katy. He made a decision. “‘Kay. I’m coming with you, but first I’m seeing Darry.”
Joint Boy nodded, heading over to his truck. “Sure, man. Just don’t take too long.” As he moved, Katy’s head drifted from his shoulder. Wayne stopped him, then gently moved her head back into place again, brushing off a wayward strand of hair that had fallen in her eyes. He kept his hand there for just a moment, then backed away, letting JB move on. He’d be with Katy the whole ride to the hospital. For now, he needed to check on Darry.
Dan and Tyson had moved from arguing to grabbing tools from Dan’s truck, so there was no one watching to see the way he took one look at Darry and nearly stopped right there. Darry had always been pale, burned easier than any of the rest of them, but now he looked f—in’ washed out, like he’d never so much as seen a ray of sunshine his entire life. Even his freckles looked paler. The only colour on him was his hands, red with blood, the same blood that had seeped through to darken the leg of his coverall. The jacket Katy had been wearing, now wrapped tight around Darry’s leg, had visible blood stains.
For a moment, Wayne questioned his decision to go with Katy to the hospital instead of staying with Darry, but then he heard the voices of Squirrelly Dan and Tyson as they returned from Dan’s truck. They’d look after Darry. He needed to look after Katy.
He reached out, needing some kind of confirmation that despite how bad Darry looked, he’d make it, but he didn’t know where to touch that wouldn’t hurt. Even if Darry was too deeply unconscious to feel it, Wayne didn’t want to hurt him.
He spotted an eyelash on Darry’s cheek and picked it off to flick away, trying to ignore the unnatural coolness. “Wish you wouldn’t die on me, bud.”
Dan and Tyson were rounding the truck now, and he didn’t want to get in their way. Besides, he’d told Joint Boy he wouldn’t be long. Hands tightly clenched by his sides, he stalked back to Joint Boy’s truck, getting in beside Katy and slamming the door behind him. “Pitter patter,” he said sharply.
Joint Boy shrugged, starting the truck.
Wayne’s hand crept out to find Katy’s, gripping it tight. He could have sworn he felt pressure back, but when he looked at her face, her eyes were still closed.
When they got to the hospital, Katy was taken away and Wayne was stuck in the waiting room filling out forms until they finally let him go back to see her. He settled himself beside her bed, shoulder stiff, willing to wait as long as it took for her to wake up.
He didn’t have to wait long before Katy was whispering to him, “Hey, big brother.”
“Hey, Katy, how’re you now?”
“Doctor came by before,” she told him, ignoring the rest of the greeting. “The concussion isn’t too serious, they were just concerned with how long we were stuck out there.” The slur was almost entirely gone from her voice, and though her eyes still drooped, she looked less hazy than she had earlier. “I can go home in the morning.”
“Ten-four.” His fingers flexed on the chair arms, itching for a dart. He stilled them again. It wasn’t right to smoke in a hospital.
They continued to sit in silence, Katy’s eyes periodically closing in extended blinks. “How’s Darry?” she asked through a yawn.
“Don’t know yet.”
“You haven’t checked yet?” She held out her hand to him. “Give me your phone.”
He handed it over, already unlocked because he knew she’d make him do that next if he didn’t.
She tapped Squirrelly Dan’s number. “Squirrelly Dan, it’s Katy...Yeah, concussion but nothing worse. How’s Darry?”
Wayne watched her listen to Squirrelly Dan’s reply, digging his fingernails into the sparsely padded arms of the hospital chair. Darry had to be alright. He’d looked after Katy, Dan had looked after Darry, and now Katy was alright so Darry had to be too.
“Thanks, Dan...Can you–? Yeah...Kay, I’ll let him know.” She hung up, laying the phone face down on the bed before looking at Wayne. “They got Darry to the hospital.”
“‘Kay.” He waited. There was definitely a but coming.
Katy knew what he was waiting for. “But, he still hasn’t woken up. He lost a lot of blood, and his leg’s cut up pretty bad. Doctors say they might need to operate.”
“Kay.”
“Squirrelly Dan’s with him now, but if they do need to operate, they’ll need next of kin to sign off on the paperwork.” She gave him a look, and he knew exactly what she meant by it. Darry had no kin in the world but the two of them, and Katy certainly wouldn’t be able to sign any paperwork right now.
Wayne didn’t say anything. He wanted to be there for Darry, but he wanted to stay with Katy too.
“Come on, Wayne. I’m fine. I’m not going to go into a coma if you leave me alone for a bit.” Katy rolled her eyes, then winced. Wayne reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back. “Seriously, I know you’re worried about me, but Darry needs you more right now.” As she talked, her blinks were getting longer and longer. “I’m going to sleep now, big brother, and when I wake up you better have news about Darry.” Her eyes closed for another blink, but this time, they didn’t reopen.
Wayne waited, just to be sure she really was asleep, then got up and went out into the hall. He didn’t want to wake Katy up, not until he had news to give her, and even then it was a danger waking Katy up before she was ready to wake.
He put in Squirrelly Dan’s number and hit call. “How’re you now?... Not so bad. Where’s Darry?”
Darry, it turned out, was in a room not too far from Katy’s, and before too long Wayne was standing outside it, trying to make himself knock. He’d seen Darry get injured a lot over the years, mostly doing really f—in’ stupid things, but rarely had it ever been bad enough to even go to the clinic, let alone the hospital.
Squirrelly Dan opened the door, startling him. “Waynes. Thought I heards someone outs here.” He turned around and went back into the room. Wayne, seeing no other choice, followed him in.
If he’d thought it was bad seeing Katy in a hospital bed and gown, it was far worse seeing Darry. Katy at least had only looked like she was sleeping, like some fairytale, while Darry looked only a step up from dead. Though there was that one fairy tale about the girl who looked dead but was really sleeping and the prince didn’t know but wanted to take her home anyway, but that almost wasn’t worth thinking about.
Dan was already sitting in the chair beside the bed, so Wayne stood. He didn’t mind. The chair was the same kind of uncomfortable hospital chair that was in Katy’s room, and he’d done enough sitting in one of those for the day. He’d really prefer to be sitting outside the produce stand back at the farm, Puppers in one hand and a dart in the other.
F—, could he go for a dart right now.
Dan tried to make conversation, but Wayne didn’t reply, too busy trying not to think about how dead Darry looked. Even his curls looked lifeless, lying limp on the linen. It wasn’t right. Wayne’s fists clenched.
Eventually, Dan got up and left the room, saying something about going to check on Katy. The single seat in the room was now free, but Wayne didn’t sit on it. Instead, he shuffled closer to the bed, careful to stay out of the way of the IV. “You wanna know what, good buddy?” he whispered. “I’d really thought you might die out there.” He stopped, letting that thought sit in the air. In the truck he’d ignored it out of fear if he looked too closely at it, it might come true, but now it had been spoken aloud, he could no longer ignore it.
What if Darry had died? What if Squirrelly Dan had been just a little later, and he’d been stuck in that truck listening to his family die, his world get turned upside down all over again? Darry had kept him and Katy together after their parents died, just like they’d done for him when his mother had died a few years before. If Darry and Katy had died in that truck, there would be nothing to keep him together at all.
He squeezed his eyes together to keep the tears at bay. No point worrying about things unless you could do something to fix them, and things were already as fixed as he could get them. Dan had come in time, Darry and Katy hadn’t died in that truck, and Katy would be walking out of here tomorrow. Darry was just a little behind the curve, as usual.
The door opened. Wayne didn’t look, just took a quick step back in case it was a nurse needing to do fiddling with something. It was probably Squirrelly Dan, though.
“Hey, big brother.”
Wayne looked over, then adjusted his gaze down. “Katy. How’re you now?”
“Good’n’you?”
“Not so bad. Why the wheelchair?”
She rolled her eyes. “Hospital policy. They don’t want me to sue them if I fall and hurt myself. Don’t worry,” she added, clearly reading Wayne’s instinct to move towards her. “My balance is fine now, I won’t fall.”
Wayne nodded in acknowledgement, but still kept an eye on her as she wheeled across the room, closer to Darry’s bed. “Hey, Darry. Felt like getting some extra sleep today, eh?” She leaned closer. “You may think you’ve got it easy right now, but I remember you threatening to pull my hair, and believe me, you will regret it.”
“Don’t,” Wayne interrupted.
“Why? It’s still Darry.”
“Yeah, but...” He trailed off. Katy waited for him, still looking at him but giving him the time to find the right words. “He’s in hospital.”
“So?”
“So you shouldn’t talk to people in hospital like that.” Hospital wasn’t like a trip to the clinic. Hospitals were serious.
As always, Katy understood him better than he understood himself. “Darry will be fine, Wayne. You remember when he drank the bleach under the sink in the kitchen because he liked the colour? Well, wasn’t he fine after that?”
“Yeah.”
“And you remember when you guys got really drunk and thought it’d be fun to try jumping out of the hayloft? Wasn’t he fine after that too?”
“Well, yeah.”
“See? He was fine those times, he’ll be fine this time too.” Katy reached out to ruffle Darry’s hair then relaxed back into her wheelchair, letting her eyes close.
Squirrelly Dan beamed at her. “You knows just whats to say tos a fellow when he’s upsets, Miss Katys, and that’s what I appreciates about you.”
Katy smirked, her eyes still closed. “Oh, is that what you appreciate about me?”
“Just take about 20% off her there, Squirrelly Dan.”
At Wayne’s familiar warning tone, Dan immediately cast his eyes away from Katy. “Yep, oh look, the door.”
Wayne let his shoulders relax, just a bit. It wasn’t okay, wouldn’t be until Darry woke up and they could all go back to the farm again, but at least this was more normal.
It wasn’t too long before Katy had to go back to her room, patients not being allowed much time for visiting other patients. Even then, she snuck back to Darry’s room twice before the nurse exasperatedly told them that if Katy didn’t get some sleep, she wouldn’t be allowed to be released in the morning. Seeing she was serious, and that Katy’s eyelids were starting to droop again, Wayne personally escorted her to bed after that, keeping her company even after she fell asleep. He only moved when Dan called, telling him the doctor needed to talk to him.
Fortunately, it was good news. “We were concerned about risks of operating with such serious blood loss, but we’ve taken some new scans and an operation no longer looks necessary.”
Wayne blinked. “Kay.”
“Daryl will need some physical therapy later on to recover full use of the leg,” the doctor continued, looking slightly confused at the lack of reaction, “but we can discuss that with him later on. For now, Daryl is no longer in danger and should wake up soon.”
“Ten-four.” He held out a hand for the doctor to shake.
“...right.” The doctor, to her credit, shook his hand then left, obviously realising Wayne was not interested in further discussion.
Once she had turned the corner and as out of sight, Wayne leaned against the corridor wall, retrieving a dart from his pocket and bringing it to his lips before remembering he couldn’t smoke here. Instead, he just held it there, the familiarity of it bringing a measure of comfort.
Darry was going to be okay.
Katy was okay, Darry would be okay, now all he needed was Darry to finally wake up and the day might not turn out so bad after all.
Well, night. Technically.
He considered going outside to actually light his dart, then put the dart away and went back to the room. If he was going to have a dart, might as well ask Squirrelly Dan if he wanted him to bring back a coffee. It was going to be a long night.
The rest of the night passed in a haze of darts, coffee, and endless hours of waiting. He only noticed morning had arrived when Katy showed up, telling him he had to come sign her out. After that, another seat was dragged into the room, but otherwise nothing changed.
It was nearing lunchtime, and Wayne was sitting against the windowsill, thinking of what they’d do for lunch and how much longer he could wait before he’d have to get back to the farm, when finally a groan came from the bed.
Katy was the first to react. “Darry?”
“‘Wake, Kay,” Darry mumbled, sounding almost like McMurray with how inaudible he was.
“Darry!” Wayne stood in a single movement, pressing the call button beside the bed. Just seconds later a nurse came in and hustled them all out, disappearing back into the room.
They all waited tensely until she came out again a few minutes later with a smile. “Daryl’s heart rate and blood pressure are at normal levels, and he’s not showing any signs of side effects. He’ll still need a few days of rest, but he should be fine.”
“Thanks you for tellings us, ma’am,” Squirrelly Dan said with a relieved smile.
“Thank you,” the other two echoed.
“Cans wes go see him nows?”
The nurse opened the door. “Go right on in. He still needs plenty of rest, so don’t be surprised if he falls asleep unexpectedly.”
When they went in, Darry was awake and looking at them all, watching as they settled down in the same positions they’d been in before. It was like nothing had changed, but everything had. “Hey, guys.”
“Darry.” Wayne nodded. “Good to see you doing better.”
“Oh, it’s greats to see you doings better,” Squirrelly Dan added.
“I’d even say it’s fantastic to see you doing better.” Wayne nodded again, content he’d made his feelings clear on the subject. Darry’d been his best friend since they were kids; the only person who knew him better was Katy. He’d understand.
Katy leaned over the bed and hugged Darry. “We were worried about you, Dar.”
Darry smiled and gave a little giggle, the same kind Wayne was used to hearing when they laughed at one of Darry’s jokes. “Good stuff.”
She let go, stepping back. “You better not do that to us again, or I will fight you.”
Darry’s smile faded, and he looked a little wary. “You still mad at me for saying I’d pull your hair?”
“It was to save my life, so I’ll forgive you.” Darry relaxed, starting to grin again, until Katy added, “This time.”
“Now, Katy, how do you know next time won’t also be to save your life?” asked Wayne.
“How do you mean?”
“Like, maybe next time you’re in the hayloft during chorin’ time, and it catches on fire. Now, you’re stuck in there. Can’t move. Your hair caught in the wood. And how can Darry get you out?”
“Pull her hair,” Darry said.
“He pulls your hair. And it’s to save your life.”
Katy leaned forward, closer to Wayne. “So what are you trying to say here, big brother?”
“All I’m sayin’ is, I’m sure Darry wouldn’t be threatening to pull your hair without good reason, so maybe you should trust him on this one.” Wayne looked over at Darry, trying to convey without words that this was about more than just pulling Katy’s hair. Even if Darry was spare parts sometimes, he would still have chosen no one else to keep his sister alive in that truck.
Darry understood. “Thanks, good buddy.” Darry grinned straight at him, and Wayne didn’t care if it was 10-ply, in that moment, it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.