And along the side of his face, high on his cheekbone, there was a fresh scrape, raw and reddened.

“Caleb!” I said.

“My God, what happened to you?” He would not look at me.

He kept his eyes down, on the floor, on his ruined shoes.

“I fell,” he said.

“You fell?

Fell where?

How?” “Near the creek,” he said.