Then I would soften and say how much I loved him and how proud of him I was when he got a job waiting tables, and, yes, I would help pay for culinary school and, yes, he<br />and his new girlfriend could stay with me whenever they visited New York City and, no, there was nothing I wanted more than to see him happy again.<br />Later I was able to ask what no one in our family ever had: “Could you just start at the beginning and tell me everything?”<br />When I see Alex today, at 33, I no longer see someone who is stuck in one memory.<br />I told him my name and explained that I wanted to know about an accident he was involved in<br />back in 1999; two boys were crossing the street and I was the sister of the boy who lived.<br />The Accident No One Talked About -<br />JESSICA CIENCIN HENRIQUEZ<br />I found the driver’s name from a police report that had been filed in Florida 17 years before.<br />When Alex was 19, he dropped out of college — even though he had always been the smart one, the honor roll son — and I didn’t bring it up.<br />If he swerved onto the sidewalk, he would hit Alex; if he didn’t, he would hit Jonathan.
