Chapter 12 - Tyler Stopped Calling Her “The General” as a Joke
Tyler asked Mitchell to walk with him.
She almost refused.
Then agreed.
They stayed on the property.
No grand reconciliation road trip.
Just the backyard behind the kitchen.
An old basketball hoop leaned over the driveway.
The five black SUVs were gone.
One government vehicle remained farther down the street.
Tyler looked at it.
“Everybody in town saw those.”
Mitchell sighed.
“I was hoping not to become local entertainment.”
“You’ve met this town.”
They walked.
Tyler shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.
“I called you ‘the general’ before today.”
“I know.”
“You knew?”
“Emma accidentally forwarded me one of your messages three years ago.”
Tyler stopped.
“What message?”
A family group text.
Tyler had written:
Maybe the General can send a helicopter for Thanksgiving.
Michael responded with laughing emojis.
Emma changed the subject.
Mitchell saw it.
Said nothing.
Tyler looked miserable.
“I thought you didn’t know.”
“That’s usually how jokes about absent people work.”
He nodded.
Fair.
Then:
“Why didn’t you hate me?”
Mitchell almost laughed.
“I barely knew you.”
“That’s worse.”
Maybe.
Tyler continued.
He had spent years resenting her for not behaving like a sister.
No calls.
No advice.
No showing up when he graduated community college.
No intervention when he quit his first job.
He assumed she considered herself above him.
Mitchell heard that quietly.
Then said:
“I thought you believed everything Michael said.”
“I did.”
“So I stayed away.”
“You could’ve tried.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised him.
No excuse.
Mitchell had protected herself by abandoning the relationship before Tyler could reject her.
She had been young when Michael entered her life.
Tyler had been a child when she disappeared from it.
They were not equally responsible.
Still, adulthood had offered chances neither took.
Tyler kicked a pebble across the driveway.
“What do I call you?”
Mitchell frowned.
“What?”
“When I tell somebody who you are.”
“Your stepsister works.”
He laughed.
“Not General?”
“If we’re at work, sure.”
“So never.”
“Preferably.”
He looked toward the kitchen window.
Emma stood inside.
Watching.
Then quickly pretended not to be.
Tyler smiled faintly.
“She does that.”
“I know.”
They reached the old basketball hoop.
Tyler picked up a deflated ball from the grass.
“You used to destroy me at HORSE.”
“You were eight.”
“You showed no mercy.”
“Leadership training.”
For the first time, they laughed together without anybody else translating what the laugh meant.
Later Tyler changed the name in his phone.
Not GENERAL MITCHELL.
Not FAKE PENTAGON.
Not the sarcastic nicknames Michael once encouraged.
He used her actual contact name.
Simple.
May you like
Ordinary.
That mattered more to Mitchell than he knew.
