Chapter 2 - Why the detective was there
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Lena said:
“You can’t just walk into people’s houses.”
Detective Marlowe did not react emotionally.
“I’m standing at the threshold, ma’am.”
That was true.
One boot inside.
One outside.
The storm door had been propped open because Peter had been carrying mulch through earlier.
The main door had remained open all afternoon.
Marlowe pointed toward Eli.
“Is the child injured?”
I answered.
“Yes. His eyes.”
Lena said:
“He’s fine.”
Marlowe looked at her.
“I wasn’t asking you.”
That felt good.
Too good.
I concentrated on Eli.
Marlowe radioed for EMS.
Then asked:
“Ma’am, are you his mother?”
“Yes.”
“Can you bring him toward the entry so we can get him into fresh air?”
I lifted Eli.
He was too heavy to carry comfortably anymore.
I did anyway.
His face was buried against my shoulder.
Marlowe stepped aside.
Outside, a second patrol officer was already walking toward the house.
That was when I asked:
“Why are you here?”
Marlowe glanced toward the neighboring property.
“Your neighbor called 911.”
“Why?”
“Reported an adult yelling at a child and a child repeatedly saying stop.”
I looked toward the house next door.
Mrs. Keller.
Seventy, maybe.
Retired librarian.
She had lived beside my parents since I was fourteen.
Later I learned her kitchen windows were open.
So were ours.
She had heard Lena and Eli arguing over the perfume.
Then my voice.
Then Eli scream.
She had called before the spray actually happened.
Marlowe had been less than two blocks away finishing another call.
He activated his body camera as he walked up the driveway.
He announced:
“Police department.”
Nobody heard him because we were yelling.
He reached the open doorway seconds before Lena sprayed Eli.
He saw it.
He saw me slap Lena too.
The camera captured both.
At that moment, however, I knew only one thing.
An ambulance was coming.
I told Marlowe:
“He needs water.”
“We can start flushing now.”
The second officer brought a bottle of sterile eyewash from her vehicle.
Marlowe asked whether I knew the perfume ingredients.
Lena shouted from inside:
“It’s perfume, not acid.”
Marlowe looked toward her.
“Stay inside the living room, please.”
Peter said:
“This is ridiculous.”
The second officer replied:
“Sir, a five-year-old has just been sprayed in the eyes with a substance during an argument. We’re going to evaluate that.”
Diane came to the doorway.
“Anna hit Lena.”
I looked at my mother.
Even with Eli crying in my arms, she was making sure the record included my slap.
It should.
That was not the offensive part.
The offensive part was how urgently she needed my wrongdoing to exist beside Lena’s.
As if two facts automatically canceled each other.
Marlowe said:
“Yes, ma’am. I witnessed that too.”
Then he looked at me.
“We’ll address everything that occurred.”
Everything.
For the first time, the word did not frighten me.
May you like
Good.
Address everything.
