Michael followed him with his hands raised in the air in victory and crying, "YIPPEEEE!"

Jax turned to Michael. "Okay, you got me, Michael. My turn now?"

Michael looked down at Jax’s feet and pointed to his sock with a hole in the front, large enough for the big toe to poke through. "Haha! Jax, you lost your shoe again!" Michael slapped his own knee and bent over, continuing to laugh.

Jax looked at Michael’s shoes. They looked clean, and they looked so cool because they had Transformers on them. Jax wished he could have shoes like those. Moments later, he went to get the shoe he had lost and came back to Michael.

Before they could start another game, there was a loud, screeching sound. Jax saw Mrs. Appleton blowing the whistle around her neck. "Okay children! Recess is over. Your mommies and daddies are here to pick you up!"

Michael cheered and ran to the entrance where his mom was standing. She had yellow hair and a big smile on her face. She hugged him when he got over to her. Then she gave him a cone with white swirly ice cream on top.

Jax saw his dad’s black car sitting on the other side of the street. He couldn’t see his dad inside because the windows were dark, but he was pretty sure Daddy was inside. He could tell it was Daddy’s car because Daddy’s car was always the one with the fins on the back so it looked like a shark.

As Jax was leaving the playground, he heard his name being called.

"Hey Jax!" Michael’s mom said. "We have an extra one. Do you want it?"

Jax’s eyes lit up. He nodded eagerly and rushed over. "Thanks!" he said as he took the ice cream.

After Jax and Michael said their goodbyes, Jax took a few licks. It tasted so good, he couldn’t imagine anything tasting better. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had ice cream.

Jax carried his treat as he walked across the street to Daddy’s car, careful to watch out for other cars driving by. He walked around to the other side and opened the door carefully.

He stood on the curb, staring at Daddy in the driver seat, unsure if he should get inside. Sometimes Daddy got mad when he got inside without asking first. But then sometimes Daddy also got mad if he didn’t get inside quick enough.

"Hi Daddy," Jax said, as a sort of question.

"Get inside," Daddy said.

Jax released his breath and hopped inside. It seemed like Daddy wasn’t in a bad mood right now, which made him happy.

"So, how was school?" Daddy asked.

"Awesome!" Jax cheered. "We made pictures. And we made them with wet, icky stuff that had a lot of colors. Mrs. Appleton said we have to let them dry, so I can’t show you today. But tomorrow I can show you."

Daddy chewed something in his mouth for a moment. "You play with that other boy?"

Jax put his finger to his mouth as he thought about his day and who he played with. "Um, who?"

"You know, the one with the mom over there," Daddy said pointing out the window. "That hot lady with the nice butt."

"Oh! That’s Michael’s mom! She gave me this!" Jax held up his ice cream.

Daddy kept his gaze out the window. "Yep, that’s the one." Daddy rolled down the window a little bit and spit brown stuff from his mouth.

"Yeah, I played with Michael. We played cops and robbers!"

"Who won this time?"

Jax hesitated. He’d had so much fun playing with Michael that he’d forgotten that he should’ve taken it more seriously. He thought about telling the truth, but was afraid of how Daddy might respond if he told Daddy that he lost. "I won, Daddy."

Daddy was quiet for a moment. "Are you telling the truth, Jax?"

Jax suddenly felt like ants were crawling all around in his stomach, eating at the few bites of ice cream that were there. He looked away. "I—I don’t know."

"Don’t lie to me, boy," Daddy said with a scary voice.

"I—I almost won."

"So you lost?"

"Yeah, but—"

Jax’s head smashed into the side window with a crunching sound. He cried out in pain as the world flashed bluish-green.

"I told you not to lie to me, boy. Why don’t you ever listen?"

Jax’s head pounded. It hurt so bad that he wanted to scream, but he bit his lip to avoid crying. Daddy didn’t like crying. All he wanted was to make Daddy happy, but he would always mess up and Daddy would get angry at him and have to punish him for being bad.

"Sorry Daddy," Jax mumbled, fighting back the tears in his eyes. He was so disappointed in himself. He deserved it. "I’ll try harder next time."

Daddy took a deep breath.

Just as Jax thought Daddy was going to calm down, Daddy’s arm shot out. Jax’s head slammed into the window again. And again. And again. And again . . . He didn’t know how many times he heard the crunching sound because after a while everything went from bluish-green to black.

When he opened his eyes again, he figured he had fallen asleep and just woken up. His head throbbed and ached all over. It felt like a T-Rex had played jump rope on his head while he was sleeping and now an Indian was banging on it like a drum. The ants were now crawling all over his eyes, making it hard to see.

He slowly turned to look at Daddy in the driver seat and saw that Daddy’s face was no longer red and scrunched up. Daddy didn’t look angry anymore.

"Put on your seatbelt, Jax," Daddy said. "I don’t want you to get hurt."

The world was still fuzzy and spinning, and Jax wasn’t quite sure he understood the words that Daddy had said even though he knew he had heard them.

Belt. Seat. See what bells? . . . There are bells ringing in my head but I can’t see them . . .

After a few seconds, Jax somehow managed to do as he was told.

He looked down at his shirt and saw the ice cream had spilled all over it.

As Daddy started driving, Jax tried scooping the white ice cream mixed with red drops on his shirt into his mouth. He thought that if he ate enough, the ants would crawl out of his eyes and go back to his stomach, and then he would be able to see better. But after a few gulps, he realized he couldn’t eat anymore. The ice cream tasted like metal.

It made him want to cry even more. He bit his lip harder and balled his fists into his shorts. His eyes felt stingy and wet, but he wouldn’t let the tears come down. He wasn’t going to blink. He wasn’t going to disappoint Daddy and make him angry again.

Crying would just make it worse.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

BURN

Riley

The bikers had stopped fighting and turned their attention toward the source of the whistling—the man who had gotten out of the black Cadillac.

The man had wild shoulder-length hair, grayed with streaks of white. The maroon shirt he wore was unbuttoned, and beneath it was a stained beater that protruded a bit over his belt. His jeans looked worn. His face had bags and deep lines; he looked like he was past his forties, but despite his age, there was something about him that was striking. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The man began walking over. "What's going on here?" he asked in a deep voice. His words lacked any trace of uncertainty, his question more like a command than an answer.

I looked at Jax. His brows were knitted together tightly, his eyes were wide, and his mouth was a thin line. He looked shocked, anguished even, as if he recognized the man coming toward us, and that the man was a ghost. A sudden dread coiled in my stomach.