11

Chapter 11

Alex opened the door of his grandfather's office tentatively. The old man looked up from his laptop with a smile as he greeted him cheerily. Alex greeted him shyly and took a seat across from him on the couch, staring at the wall nervously while he waited for his grandfather to start talking. He hated this waiting game. It was frustrating him almost beyond words.

At last, however, Vic finally began to speak after several long minutes of silence.

"Alex, I need to ask you some things and I really hope that you'll answer honestly, okay? I mean, this is about the accident you were involved in. If you want to keep that between the two of us, that's perfectly fine, but I have to make sure." His voice became quieter as he continued, "Was it...was it you...?"

Alex gulped painfully as he answered in a strained whisper, "It wasn't me...not directly. I didn't know what was happening back then."

Vic sighed deeply before continuing, "Okay...okay. So did you see anything?"

"I saw your car in the distance as I crossed the street on the way to school. Then everything went white and I lost consciousness for a few seconds. I remembered seeing your car ahead of me and trying to overtake it, but I couldn't manage it. That's when I realized that you must have hit something. I thought I heard someone scream but the sound was muffled so I didn't know if it was real or not. I didn't even realize that my car was moving because it was so fast."

Alex closed his eyes and whispered quietly, "When I woke up, it was already dark. All I could remember was running away from the cars that had stopped to chase me. It looked like a bunch of people were chasing me."

As he finished speaking he opened his eyes, expecting his grandfather to scold him and reprimand him for letting the police find him. But when he lifted his head he found himself gazing steadily into his grandfather's calm eyes.

"I understand that I was stupid but…" Alex started to speak.

Vic cut him off impatiently, "Did anyone ever say that you weren't brave, brave enough to run away from a scene full of policemen? Did anyone ever say that you were reckless, careless or irresponsible? No one can be both at the same time, Alex. Even you can be a bit of both, sometimes. That doesn'