Chapter 15 - What Eli Was Afraid to Lose
Eli entered without looking at his father.
He sat, adjusted the microphone, and asked whether they could hear him.
His voice sounded steadier than his hands looked.
He described seeing the cylinder nine days before the collapse, when his father was touring the equipment area. He had accompanied him after class.
Hale had listened to the reported fault and written the removal instruction himself.
“What did he say then?” the presenting counsel asked.
“Not to leave questionable equipment where someone might grab it in an emergency.”
Nia looked toward Hale.
He was watching his son.
Eli continued. The afternoon before the demonstration, he had returned to collect a jacket his father left in the office. Reyes was discussing the unresolved cylinder with him.
Eli had mentioned the warning his father wrote.
“What was the response?”
“He said they had backup equipment. That shutting down a whole station over one reserve cylinder would make the program look unprepared.”
“What did you understand?”
“That he wanted it back in place even though the repair paperwork wasn’t complete.”
“Did you know whether it had actually been repaired?”
“No.”
He didn’t improve the answer.
Hale’s attorney asked whether father and son had argued recently.
“Yes.”
“Over your performance in training?”
“Sometimes.”
“And your father can be demanding.”
“Yes.”
“Could disappointment in that relationship affect how you remember an ordinary conversation?”
Eli took a drink of water.
“I’ve thought about that. I wrote down what I remembered before I gave my statement. I told the investigator what I wasn’t sure about too.”
“Your father stayed at the hospital with you.”
“Yes.”
“He was concerned for you.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you chose to testify against him.”
Eli looked at his father then.
It wasn’t a look of victory.
“He told me the tank never mattered because Brooks found another one. But I remember how scared he was when the cart came over.”
The officer presiding reminded him to distinguish what he observed from his interpretation.
Eli nodded.
“He stopped talking. He looked at the cylinder, then at me. I’d never seen him look like that.”
“What delayed your statement?” the presenting counsel asked later.
Eli pressed his thumb against the edge of the glass.
“He brought the chair right up to my hospital bed. He stayed there all night. I thought if I told what I heard, I’d be saying none of that counted.”
His mother lowered her face into her hand.
“What changed?”
Eli swallowed.
“I figured out it could count, and the other thing could still have happened.”
He finished answering the questions.
When he stood, Hale half rose from his chair.
May you like
Eli paused, but he didn’t go to him.
His father sat back down and let him leave.
