Page 29 of Second Alarm
Derek doesn't tell it like that.
Derek tells it like: "And Brennan, right, Brennan disappears for twenty whole minutes, maybe twenty-five, and we're all looking for him in the chaos, and nobody can find him, and we're thinking, like, is he hurt, is he in the supply cage, did he getknocked out, and then he comes back like a half hour later — where were you, Brennan, where'd you go, what happened — "
"Bathroom." Ty doesn't look up from his beer. "I was in the bathroom, Derek."
"Twenty-five minutes?"
"Long bathroom."
"Yeah, see, that's what we thought — "
Rivera, from four feet away at the jukebox, doesn't turn around. "Leave the man's bathroom alone."
"Rivera — "
"Leave his bathroom alone."
Derek, I'm learning, has two off switches. One of them is Rivera. The other is my mother, Judy Larsen, whom he hasn't met, but who would also work. Derek raises his hands in mock surrender and goes to his pint.
"Fine. Brennan was in the bathroom."
"Thank you."
"For twenty-five minutes."
"Derek — "
"In the middle of a drill."
"Derek."
"Fine."
I pick up my whiskey. I take a long, civilized sip. I set it down. I don't feel my face. My face has gone somewhere. My face is in the witness protection program.
"I don't remember that drill," Cal says, to me, like I'm someone who would find this revelatory. "Was I there?"
"You were there," Ty says.
"Was I in the locker room?"
"You were puking in a bush."
"Right, right. I had the stomach flu that night."
"You had hazed rookies drinking Everclear. You didn't have the stomach flu."
"Stomach flu," Cal says.
"Mmhmm."
"I had the flu, Hanna, I want to be clear about this." Cal turns to me.
"Got it."
"I don't remember Brennan leaving."
"You were busy," I say.
