Grill

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Bear bolted my way as soon as I slid the glass door open and stepped out into the small, enclosed backyard of the property I shared with my brother. A fenced-in yard had been another one of the requirements we'd given the realtor when we searched for a house to rent. She had delivered. There was a six-foot privacy fence surrounding the entire backyard.

"Hey buddy, what are you doing?" I asked Bear. He nudged me with his big nose, which usually meant he wanted to play fetch. "Go get your ball and I'll play with you," I instructed him. He took off and returned a few seconds later with a worn-out tennis ball in his mouth which he dropped by my feet and looked up at me with his large, brown eyes and the tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth.

I smiled as I picked up the ball and threw it as far as I could within our yard. Bear took off the second the ball left my hand and caught it out of the air, in what looked like both an impressive and effortless move.

"Hey, bro." My brother stepped out onto the small covered patio and slid the patio door shut behind him.

"Hey, sport, what's going on?" I asked.

He did a half-shrug with his shoulder, but together with the serious look on his face, it put me on alert.

"What...?"

"Let's talk about that later," he cut me off before I got a chance to ask what was wrong. "What do you want to do for dinner?"

I threw the ball to Bear again and turned my focus back on my brother. He had a serious expression on his face and stood with his hands in his jeans pockets as he rocked back on his heels. The stance, together with the intense expression on his face, told me something had happened. That something was wrong. But also that we weren't going to have the discussion about whatever it was outside. At least not yet. And I knew better than to push him.

"How about burgers on the grill?" I suggested. I knew we had them since I'd picked them up when I stopped at the supermarket on my way home the night before, and it was easy and quick to make.

"Okay."

I threw the ball with Bear a few more times while my brother started the grill.

"Play with Sport," I told Bear when he returned the ball all full of slobber.

"Eh, thanks..." my brother said when Bear dropped the ball at his feet and barked.

"I'm going to change out of my work clothes," I told him and went inside.

When I walked back outside a couple of minutes later in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, Bear laid panting underneath the awning next to his bowl of water. My brother had cracked open a couple of bottles of beer and turned on some music. It was soft rock, but the volume was loud enough to drain out whatever it was we were going to talk about.

I accepted the beer he handed me with a nod and took over by the grill.

"So," I started as I put the beef patties on the grill, and there was an instant hissing sound. "I'll go first." He clearly had something to tell me, but we had more than just that to talk about. "I got a couple of calls at work today."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked and put the beer down on the table to give me his full attention. "From who?"

"I'm not sure because nobody left a message, but I think one might have been Ellie. It was a Georgia number."

It was rare that I got calls from unknown numbers at work. I didn't really get many calls at all, but when I did, it was usually internal calls from my department. Most of the time they were regarding some deadline.

"What are you going to do about that?" My brother asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Nothing."

He pressed his lips together in a tight line that looked like a frown.

"You don't approve?" I asked as I flipped the patties over. "What do you think I should do, then?"

He shook his head quickly. "That's not why. I'm not really concerned if Ellie called you. I kind of expected that. I'm more concerned about the other call. Was that also a Georgia number?"

"No."

"Do you know where it was from?"

I thought about that for a second to see if I remembered the area code, but I didn't. I shook my head.

My brother ran his hand through his hair and sighed like it disappointed him I didn't remember.

"It might have been blocked," I offered as I wrecked my brain in an attempt to see if I could picture the number on the phone, but I couldn't and that was really no surprise. I'd been pretty rattled after seeing a Georgia number. What I expected had been Ellie.

"I got a call today too," my brother said. "I'd like to know if it was from the same number."

That caught me off guard. "You did? From who?"

It got quiet for a few seconds.

"Dad."

"What?" I gasped.

It had been years since we'd seen him and the last time either of us talked to him was after our mom's funeral two years earlier.

My brother nodded slowly.

"Well, what did he say? What was the message?"

"All it said was 'ten years.'"

"Ten years?" I frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

He took a long pull from the beer and looked away from me.

"I'm not sure, but it's been ten years since we moved out of Georgia."

I was well aware that it had been ten years since we moved out of Georgia. Lately, I'd been reminded of that over and over. It had been ten years since Ellie. Since I heard her laugh, looked into her bright blue eyes, or held her in my arms.

"I think it was a warning," my brother continued.

"Fuck. Seriously?" I put the spatula down and turned my full attention to him.

He nodded and drained the rest of his beer.

"Do you have any idea where he is?" I asked.

"No. That was all it said."

"Where was his area code from?"

"Same burner phone he had after the funeral."

"So we have no idea where he is?"

"No."

I nodded. "Better that way, I guess."

At least that was what we had agreed on back then.

"Yeah," he nodded.

The flames on the grill sputtered, and I turned back to it and shut it off.

"Hand me the plates," I instructed my brother, and he did. I put the burgers on the buns and handed his plate back to him.

"Thanks."

I took the seat across from him at the table and added some ketchup to my burger.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked. "Do you have any idea what he warned us about?"

"No. Not yet."

"Shit."

"Yeah..."

That was bad. So fucking bad.

"Come here, Bear," I called, my appetite completely gone.

He strolled over with his tongue out, salivating, anticipating. I handed him the last piece of my burger, which he swallowed in one bite.

"Do we need to start looking for somewhere else to go?"

My brother cocked his head. "I thought we already decided that our next stop was Wichita, Kansas."

I groaned.

We had, but I really didn't want to move to freaking Kansas. Especially not now. Not after seeing Ellie.

Things had been decent in Boston. I didn't love the winters, but we'd been able to live there with no trouble for about three years. I wasn't ready for another complete transformation.


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