Seventeen Crimes

Fourteen

"Why? Why?" Dylon demanded, throwing the blankets off the bed.

"What do you mean, 'why'?" Brie asked, as she tried to pack a bag.

The problem was, Dylan decided to wash the bed sheets while Brie tried to pack a small bag for a trip.

"There has got to be a reason why now, all of a sudden, you have decided that you needed to pack all your friggen things up and board a plane for – of all the places on this planet – Florida. Land of ten thousand LGBTQ+ insults."

"That – look, as much as I agree with that, I am not going to Florida to hang out at the Magic Kingdom or run around International Drive."

"No, you are going to Bikini Beach."

Brie held up her bag, shaking it. "Do you honestly see me put my bathing suit in here?"

"It's Florida."

"Like that's the answer for anything."

"You can walk into a Walmart any time of the year and see swimsuits on one side of the wall and hats and gloves on the other."

"I am going to research a book about my dad."

"I don't think any of that is a good idea," Dylan said.

"Its not about you."

"Isn't it?" Dylan asked. "Isn't this thing effecting us? You didn't listen to me when I told you not to talk to that guy and any problem we have had as a couple in the last few months goes back to that."

"What, talking to my brother?" Brie asked.

She scooped her clothes off the floor, refolding them to fit in her bag.

"You may share biology but that doesn't make him your brother," Dylan said.

"Then what makes a brother?" Brie asked.

"Brent is a far better brother than a stranger," Dylan said. They beat the pillows back to shape and lined them up at the headboard. "We have everything we need."

"From your point of view," Brie said. "Is it not valid for me to want answers for myself?"

"I'm not saying that."

"Yes, you are," Brie said. "As long as it doesn't interrupt the life you think we both want, you are okay with it, but because I am asking questions about why my dad left and why my family fell apart, you are threatened."

"I am not threatened. Not when that man is married to that woman. Not when he abandoned you as a child."

"What if it wasn't his choice? What if all the pain I have gone through, all the work I have had to do to overcome the pain of my childhood wasn't caused because he made that choice."

"Are you defending him?"

"Not exactly. But I can't know if I don't have the whole story, now. Can I.?

Dylan said nothing.

Brie ducked into the bathroom to finish packing her travel bag.

"You are asking the wrong questions," Dylan said.

"What do you mean?" Brie asked, coming out of the bathroom again.

"The questions you asked at the presser."

"About carbon? Wait – are you mad because I am going to Florida to meet my brother and research for a book about my father, or are you mad because I asked the first secretary of the department of renewable energy about how much carbon we need in our atmosphere to stay alive?" Brie asked.