Vulnerable

“He is nothing but vulnerable so give him a break,” I said as I raised the axe above my head.  I heard the satisfying thunk of splitting wood and waited for Scott to respond. 

“He is twenty-nine years old.  Time for him to grow up and get out.”  I sighed one of the millions of sighs I had when it came to Scott and Kevin.  There was no explaining one to the other, but more often I was the intermediary between two lost friends. 

“Trauma doesn’t work like that.  Not everyone heals the same and no two people respond the same.  You can’t expect him to respond like you think he is going to respond.” 

It was Scott’s turn to sigh.  I didn’t respond because I knew it wouldn’t do any good.  Scott and Kevin were too different.  Too far apart to really understand each other.  Honestly, I don’t think they had ever really tried. 

Now that they had both lost the most important person in their life, they were drifting farther apart than they ever had before.  I knew both of them well enough to know neither was going to back down or apologize.  All I could do was watch the fire of their friendship burn to the ground. 

Not that I wasn’t upset about the current state of events, but I was more interested in how to keep them out of jail for the suspicious nature of our sister’s death.