Now & Again by E. A. Fournier

his healing forehead. “Well, maybe a little more than
barely
, but close enough.” Josh shot a murky look at his father and was treated to a silent
shut-up
in return.
    Neither look was noted by Leah. “You better call the police today, before they call you. You should have done that yesterday, you know.”
    Kendall huffed an exasperated breath. “I need to talk to George first and then look at trucks and then I’ll get around to the police. What do they care anyway? I’m just another victim.”
    Leah got up and started collecting plates and silverware. “Do the police first, honey. I’m sure they’re wondering what happened to you.” She carried a stack over to the sink and looked back. “And who’s George?”
    “C’mon, we’ve had the same insurance agent since we bought the house. You know, good old George, whatever-his-name-is, over at…Cornerstone.”
    Leah returned for the rest of the dishes and paused with an empty juice glass in her hand. “You’re the one that switched us to Allstate four years ago because of all those ads you liked, and there’s no
good-old-George
, or any other kind of George over there that I’m aware of.” She tipped her head slightly. “I think there’s maybe a Vince that helped us last time you got in a scrape.” She leaned over him with some concern. “Maybe that bonk on the head did more damage than you think.”
    “Wait a minute now.” Kendall was automatically getting up on his high horse, determined to defend himself. “That’s ridiculous, I remember…”
    Josh kicked him carefully under the table and Kendall swallowed whatever he was about to say next. “Ah! Well, I do have a headache this morning – didn’t sleep worth a damn again. Hate that CPAP thing! What’d I just say,
George
? Stupid. I meant
Vince
. Yeah, Vince at Allstate, that’s right. George?” He glanced in Josh’s direction. “Who in the world’s George? I must be losing my mind.”
    Leah gathered the last of the plates and rinsed them and started to load the dishwasher. “Kendall, don’t forget the police?”
    Kendall was getting up and putting on a baseball cap. “I told you, I won’t forget.”
    “
First
. Do the police
first
.”
    “Fine, I’ll buy the truck
after
I talk to the insurance company, to Vince, and
after
I talk to the police.”
    Kendall walked by Leah and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Happy now? Let’s go, Josh. You’re driving.”
    Josh stuffed a last bite of dripping toast and handed the dish to his Mom before he followed Kendall out the door.
    * * *
    The District 2 Cincinnati police department parking lot, off Erie Avenue, was overflowing. An unhappy uniformed officer, wearing a day-glo orange striped vest, straddled the curb at the lot entrance and tried to direct cars in and out. Tempers were short and the right lane blockage on Erie was starting to impede the morning’s traffic flow.
    Inside the single story brick building, Kendall and Josh were crammed into plastic chairs in a corner of the waiting area. The room was noisy and moist with humanity. Kendall idly flipped a paper tab with the number
73
printed on it as a colorful cross-section of irritated citizenry milled around him. Josh sat relaxed and seemed to enjoy watching some of the more interesting characters nearby.
    An unflappable, black female police officer with a clipboard scanned the crowd with experienced eyes before she settled on them. She walked directly up to Kendall, ignoring everyone else, and spoke with an inner city attitude. “You part of the freeway crash?”
    Kendall came out of his trance and looked up. “Number 73?”
    “Forget that. You told intake you were the red Crewcab?”
    “The what? Oh…yeah…”
    “The one on the shoulder? Flipped and burned?”
    He smiled tiredly. “Sounds like mine.”
    “We been lookin’ fer you.” She waved him to his feet with the clipboard. “C’mon.”
    Both Kendall and Josh nervously got up. The officer stopped, cocked a head and