“Hmm… I liked really random things, I guess. WatchedBuffya lot, andVeronica Marswith my mom sometimes.Dextertoo, andSouth Park.” Makai sounded thoughtful.
“Anything you didn’t like?”
“How I Met Your Mother. I hated the main character. Everyone else was fine,” Makai confessed and then chuckled. “And I never got intoLostafter the first season. Another one my mom loves wasFriends, but I couldn’t watch it much before something or other annoyed me too much.”
Emil nodded. “My mom lovesFriendstoo. Ross is a total asshole.” He grinned at Makai. “Some of the shows you liked still run, you know.South Parkat least. And there’s aVeronica Marsmovie now. They made it a couple of years back.”
“Oh, I need to check it out. Maybe watch the whole show from the beginning. It was pretty clever.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen a few episodes, but not everything.”
Whatever he was about to say next died on his lips with the “Uh-oh!” they heard from ahead of them.
“Joey, no!” Makai yelled and started to run.
Emil didn’t freeze, but it took him a beat or two longer to get himself moving.
A horrible creaking, crunching sound crept through the trees before half of the boat shed collapsed. He couldn’t see Makai or Joey.
“Joey! Makai!” he called out while trying to get his phone out of his pocket with trembling, uncooperative fingers.
It took a few seconds of silence and a literal dust settling before he could hear Makai’s voice.
“Call an ambulance,” Makai said calmly but loud enough for him to hear. “We’re mostly fine, but Joey got knocked out when we fell.”
Emil froze.
“Emil. Can you hear me? You need to call 911 for us, okay? It’ll be fine. I promise.”
He stared at the collapsed mess of wood and tried to get his limbs to work. His fingers were clenched around his phone so hard they were white.
“Emil, you can do this. I believe that you can. Just take a deep breath for me, okay?”
Something about Makai’s tone made him take that breath. It felt like on the next exhale his body jerked into motion again, as if someone had pressed pause for the second time.
“Okay!” he called out to Makai, then went through the motions of calling for help. He couldn’t remember the address, but that didn’t matter, because Makai gave it to him anyway, and because they were so close to the Sheriff’s Station, the operator let him go as soon as he heard the first sirens.
“Go make sure they find us, okay?” Makai told him from somewhere in the rubble.
Emil nodded, then realized he couldn’t make another sound even if he tried and just turned around and ran back through the patch of woods and up the hill.
It was his dad’s cruiser that rolled to a stop by Makai’s truck, and Emil let out a sob of pure relief.
“Emil!” Dad and Jason got out of the cruiser at the same time, looking equally worried.
“Here, down where the boat shed is. It started to go down when Joey went in. Then Makai went to protect him, I guess, and it collapsed on them.”
“Jason, you stay here, make sure they know where to come,” Dad told his deputy, and Jason nodded solemnly. “Show me, son.”
Emil started to jog back with his dad on his heels. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. We told him not to go into buildings, but he’s a little kid and—”
“Hey, it’s okay. Accidents happen,” Dad said, and Emil hoped it wasn’t just to calm him down and away from the precipice of the looming anxiety attack they both could feel.
It felt like no time at all and yet an eternity to get to the boat shed.
“Stay back,” Dad told him when they got there.
Emil watched as Dad turned into the sheriff in front of his eyes and started to do his job.
