Read Online The Ravine by Robert Pascuzzi - Free Book Online Page B

was sincere. He had developed a regular practice of praying and reading the Bible himself, and understood the concept of forgiveness. “We need to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, first of all, bro,” he said, putting his hand on Danny’s shoulder, and looking him straight in the eye. “This isn’t BS. I’ve really changed.”
    Danny was about to say he could see that something was different about Tony, when the door opened again and there stood Kevin Grant. He hadn’t been able to attend the court proceedings due to his condition, so the last time these three were in the same room was on that fateful night, when they were clubbing and swearing at one another.
    The officer who escorted him into the room suggested they shake hands, and then said they should sit across from one another at the conference table in the center of the room—Danny and Tony on one side, Kevin on the other. The officer stood off by the window, but his nightstick swung by his side and he reminded the group that there would be no shouting or any other violent action. This was a highly unusual meeting, and they were only doing it “because of the persistence of Mr. Grant,” he added.
    Kevin looked different from the person Tony and Danny remembered seeing that night. He seemed older. That may have been dueto the fact that the newspaper articles always included a picture of Kevin from his college yearbook or his wedding, and that was a long time ago. He was a clean-cut sort of guy, six feet tall, with dirty blond hair and dark eyes. He had grown a mustache, and that made him look a little older as well. However, he seemed imbued with a definite happiness, and greeted them with a wide smile that broke the ice.
    “I know you guys must think I’m crazy or some sort of religious fanatic, but I want you to know that I’m neither, and I appreciate this,” he said, gesturing as though inviting them to sit at his table for dinner, and then sitting down himself. “They’re only going to give us fifteen minutes to meet, so I want to say what I have to say, because I’ve been thinking about this moment for a long time.”
    Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, the brothers mumbled something along the lines of “no, we really are grateful, go ahead, and say what you want to say.”
    “Well, as I said in my letter, I spent the first few years after that night being driven crazy by my anger at the two of you and that other guy who killed himself in Gates Mills. I just couldn’t accept that anyone could be so horrible and selfish and brutal as to break into someone’s house, steal their money, and then beat me almost to death and throw my pregnant wife on the floor.” He looked at Tony when he said the last few words. This was not going the way the brothers had expected, and the officer moved a step closer to the table.
    “I would lie in bed at night and replay the incident, wishing I had taken the bat and smashed both of you in the head, and just put a stop to the whole thing. Why didn’t I defend my wife? I was angry at myself, and I felt like a coward, because when I turned on the light and saw the three of you, I was terrified for me and my wife.”
    “Listen, man, we’re sorry—” Tony started, but Kevin cut him off with a wave of his hand.
    “I know you are, because you got caught, but it easily could have gone the other way. I might have been killed, and Missy too, and it could have been a lot worse. But I wasn’t able to see that for a long, long time. After I recovered and could go back to work, and our son was born, I thought I would be able to get back to normal, but instead, I started sinking deeper and deeper into a depression. My wife made me see a shrink, but all he did was make me talk about my rage, and that just made it worse.
    “Then one night, I left my shop around eight o’clock, and I saw this guy Harold, who often slept on the grate outside my store to keep warm. He was talking to this very unusual-looking woman with