With a nod, he wrapped his good hand around the door handle right above mine.

“On three?” I said.

“On three,” he agreed.

“One,” we chanted together.

“Two.”

“Thr—”

“WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?”

Thirty-One

I squeaked in surprise as Oren and I whirled around to face my dad. He was standing in the doorway, red-faced and looking madder than I’d ever seen him.

Oh no.

We both dropped our hands from the fridge door handle.

“I asked you a question!” he said in a much quieter voice, but he was still just as mad.

I burst into tears. I didn’t mean to, but my dad never gets angry. Right now it looked as if steam was going to start shooting out of his ears like in one of those old cartoons.

“Follow me,” he said very sternly. “Both of you.” He turned and left the storage room. Oren and I looked at each other and then hurried to follow him down the short hall into the quiet room.

“Sit,” he barked, pointing at the sofa that faced the door.

Oren and I lowered ourselves onto it. I wondered if he was as nervous as I was. Was his heart pounding as hard in his chest?

“Now,” Dad said. “Tell me what you two were doing in there.”

“Uh, we were—” I was about to lie, but I knew he’d lose his mind even more if I did. I was definitely in trouble already, I didn’t want to be in trouble forever. I sighed and opened my mouth to tell him the truth. Oren beat me to it.

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Walman,” he said. “Please don’t be angry with Evie. I wanted to see…a body. I thought it would give me closure about my parents. I…I asked her to show me. It’s all my fault.”

Dad sighed and sat down on the couch across from us. Then he stood up and came over to ours. “Move over,” he said. Oren and I both shifted, making room so he could sit between us.

He took a long breath before he started to speak. “Listen,” he said, his voice now very calm. “I’m sorry I yelled. But you can’t, under any circumstances, gawk at a deceased person to satisfy your own curiosity. It is not only incredibly disrespectful, but I don’t think either of you are ready.”

I exhaled in relief. Oren did too.

Dad snorted. “Clearly I was correct in that assumption.”

He turned toward Oren. “I understand your wish for closure. What happened to your family is a terrible tragedy, except for one important thing.”

Oren swiped at a tear with his thumb. Dad put his arm around him and pulled him close. “The one important thing is that you survived. I won’t lie to you and tell you it’s going to be easy for you—you know better anyway—but your parents are up there somewhere, and they are so thankful that you survived. As a parent I can tell you nothing would be worse than losing a child. Nothing. And they are so thankful and relieved that you made it out of that accident.”