Free My Name Is River Blue by Noah James Adams Page A

time and be
sure to tell me only the truth. Understand?"
    "I think
so." I took another bite from the protein bar, and worked some caramel off
the roof of my mouth so I could speak. I saw Detective Walls and Miss Martin
look at each other as if my eating bothered them, but I didn't care. I wasn't
giving up the protein bar unless one of them made me.
    "Wait,
before you start," ordered the detective. I saw that Detective Walls had a
tape recorder, not a radio as I first thought. I listened as the man said the
date, time, and who was in the room. I remember thinking it was cool to be
recorded and wondered if he would play it back for me. "Okay, River, tell
me what happened this morning at the tree house in the Paulsons' back
yard."
    ***
    I told the story
of how Mike and I grew hot and sweaty after playing football in the back yard,
and we decided to take a break in the tree house where there was usually a cool
breeze passing through. We climbed up the ladder that was nailed to the tree
trunk, and both of us were sitting inside the house when we heard five-year-old
Trevor calling us from the bottom of the tree. The little boy asked if he could
come up with us, and Mike told him to go away. Trevor was determined to join us
and climbed the fifteen feet to the entrance. As he tried to throw a leg onto
the floor of the tree house, Mike yelled at him and used his foot to shove his
little brother. The smaller boy lost his balance and fell backwards off the
ladder.
    I heard Trevor's
scream that ended with a grunt when he hit the ground. When Mike realized that
his little brother had fallen all the way to the bottom of the tree, his face
turned white, and he quickly crawled down a few rungs of the ladder, before
dropping the rest of the way to the ground. It was the fastest that I had ever
seen him come down from the tree house.
    Mike took a
quick look at Trevor and yelled loudly for his mom, who had heard Trevor's
scream and was already running out of the house. I stayed in the tree house and
observed the scene below me because there had been times in the past when
people had yelled at me for getting in the way. Even Senator Paulson had told
me to stay out of family business that didn't concern me.
    Mrs. Paulson,
dressed only in her bathrobe, rushed to Trevor, screamed his name, and began
wailing. She cradled his head and stroked his hair while she spoke to him as if
the unconscious boy could hear her. Neighbors began to come out of their
houses, and I heard the woman next door tell Mrs. Paulson that she had called
911.
    At first, Mike
stood quaking quietly by his mother's side, but he soon began yelling and
wildly waving his arms. He pointed up at the tree house, and I couldn't
understand his words, but I saw Mrs. Paulson briefly stare at me before turning
back to Trevor. When he kneeled on the ground beside his mother and brother,
Mike's body shook with his sobs.
    I was still unsure
of what I should do, but I climbed down from the tree and stood out of the way
while we waited for help to arrive. I reasoned that Mrs. Paulson would tell me
if she needed me to do something, but no one spoke to me. Mrs. Paulson continued
to cry while she held Trevor's head in her lap. I noticed bloodstains on her
robe and the grass.
    Soon, I heard
the screaming siren of an ambulance that stopped in front of the house just
before a police car arrived. Mrs. Paulson spoke to the police for a moment
while the EMTs were getting Trevor ready for transport to the hospital, but she
never said a word to me before she and Mike simply left with the ambulance.
    One of the police
officers spoke on his radio while another one stood with me. A few minutes
later, another police car arrived with two men in suits. They walked towards
the tree house while the police officers from the first car told me to come
with them. They didn't give me a reason, but I assumed that the Paulsons asked
the police to take care of me until they returned from the hospital.
    ***
    After