“We’re getting a bit off track here, Bruce. Do you mind if I finish my story?”

He raised his hands in a surrender gesture. “Pardon me.”

“My dad takes pity on her and agrees to drive out, and it’s on the way there he nods off and goes into the ditch and drives his truck right into a tree. I was out there the other day. Like, not for the first time. I go by once in a while, if I can get someone to drive. Mom never drives out that way. Anyway, there’s still no bark on the tree where he hit it. So, they did a test on him, right? Like, toxicology or whatever? And he hadn’t been drinking or anything. He wasn’t sick.” She sniffed. “I guess he was just really tired. The way Chief Joe explained it, maybe, if the ambulance had gotten there a lot sooner, they could have done something.”

Katie caught a tear before it ran down her cheek.

“Sorry, kid.” He cleared his throat. “Should I give you a hug or something?”

“No, I’m cool.”

“Good. I’m not a big hugger,” he said.

“Anyway, back to my mom. Just because my dad fell asleep at the wheel doesn’t mean I’m going to do it.”

“Your mom’s still hurting. She’ll come around, once all this Arrival horseshit is over and we all go back to regular cars. This self-driving crap is still years away, no matter what they say.”

“We’re all still hurting,” Katie said. “But Mom’s the one doing some of the hurting.”

“She wants to protect you. The road can be a dangerous place.” Bruce’s gentle smile turned into a reflective frown. “You might run into somebody like me. Or at least the guy I used to be.”

“Yeah, but you never killed anybody.”

“Could’ve,” he said. “I was pissed as a newt.”

“What’s a newt?”

He ignored the question. “I blew three times the limit. Weaving all over the road. Thank God I got pulled over before I did kill somebody. They took away my license forever.”

“But you stopped drinking.”

“That I did.”

“So can’t you appeal or something? Get your license back?”

“Don’t deserve it,” he said. “And what if I fall off the wagon one day?” He shook his head. “No, I shouldn’t be on the road. You have to pay a price for that kind of thing. I’m willing to accept that.”

“But you kept your car. Even though you can’t drive.”

“I kept that car. But my regular car, that was a five-year-old Dodge. I gave that one up. But Finny, a beauty like that, well, that’s a whole different story. Car like that is pretty hard to part with.” His smile returned. “Best thing that’s happened to me in years is you peeking through the window that night.”