David John’s face flashes dark. He hands Jessup the maul. “Put this away. I’m going to go see what’s going on.” He hesitates. “Once that’s stowed, you come around front. Walk slow. Keep your hands empty, out of your pockets, where they can see them. Stay in the light. Can’t be too careful, okay?”
Jessup hangs the maul up in the shed. He takes his time. He feels shaky. They’ve come for him, he thinks. It’s over. But when he walks in front of the trailer, the lights on the cruiser are off and the two cops talking to David John don’t seem too concerned with him. David John sees Jessup, motions him over.
“They’re here to protect us,” David John says.
“What?” He turns to look at the two cops, realizes they are the same two cops he saw outside of Kirby’s on Friday night: the fat guy and the woman with the short hair. Both of them are white. They don’t look friendly, but they don’t look menacing, either.
The woman says, “You Jessup?” Jessup nods. She says, “Bomb threat for the high school got called in to Principal Stewart. Mentioned you specifically by name. Probably nothing. I expect there will be school in the morning. But in the meantime, Chief Harris wanted us to make sure there are no problems. Particularly after what happened today. We’ll be parked out here all night.”
For a moment, Jessup thinks she must be joking. But she’s not joking, and after a minute or two, he and David John go inside. He sits down on the couch and David John calls Jessup’s mom in, explains everything to her and Jewel. His mom is upset, angry, but David John calms her down. Jewel is excited at first, on her knees on the couch and looking out the window, waving to the fat cop until he waves back.
After a while, Jessup’s mom turns the television back on, walks outside, and asks the two police officers if they want some coffee. They don’t, and Jessup’s mom comes back, sits on the love seat with David John. The four of them watch football highlights and then the first half hour of Sunday Night Football.
Around nine, with the Eagles down a field goal, she sends Jewel off to brush her teeth, to get ready for bed. Jessup doesn’t have a bedtime—he hasn’t had an official bedtime in years—but after his stepfather and mother tuck in Jewel, he goes into her room, kisses her, and then gets himself ready for bed all the same.