Chapter 3 - What did obey mean
Elliot slept for two hours after treatment.
When he woke, he asked:
“Clara okay?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
“She’s being watched by doctors and doing well.”
He nodded.
Then:
“Don’t let Aunt Aurelia take her.”
“She won’t.”
That answer I could give.
The formal child interview happened the next day with a trained specialist.
I did not sit beside him feeding questions.
The interviewer asked:
“Tell me what happened before you got into the car.”
Elliot said:
“Aunt Aurelia was mad.”
“Why?”
“Because I told Mr. Harris about the cars.”
Who was Mr. Harris?
Dale Harris, our estate fleet supervisor.
“What did you tell him?”
“That Aunt Aurelia uses Dad’s cars for strangers.”
I watched through observation glass.
My stomach tightened.
The interviewer continued.
“What did Aunt Aurelia say?”
“She said don’t talk about grown-up business.”
“Then what?”
“She made me get in the car.”
“Was Clara already there?”
“Yes.”
“Who put Clara in?”
“Aunt Aurelia.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said we were going to Grandma’s.”
Our mother lived twenty minutes away.
Then:
“She got mad because I said I would tell Dad.”
“What did she want you to obey?”
Elliot looked down.
“She said say I made it up.”
There.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“She closed door.”
“Did she say anything?”
“Bake in there until you obey.”
He began crying.
The interviewer stopped pushing chronology.
Good.
May you like
Because the question was no longer whether Aurelia had been angry.
It was what my seven-year-old had discovered about my vehicles.
