bothering dylan in the wake of nates phone call though as i stood in our kitchen trying to piece together the fragments of information we had i felt chilled by the memory of the nasty hard flatness in dylans voice as hed said goodbye that morning and the fact that hed left early but hadnt made it to class id figured he was meeting someone early for coffeemaybe even to talk through whatever was bugging him but if he hadnt made it to bowling then where on earth had he been the bottom didnt fall out from my world until the telephone rang and tom ran into the kitchen to answer it it was a lawyer my fears so far had been dominated by the possibility that dylan was in dangerthat either hed been physically hurt or done something stupid something that would get him into trouble now i understood that toms fears also included something for which dylan could need a lawyer dylan had gotten into trouble with eric in his junior year the episode had given us the shock of our lives our wellmannered organized kid the kid wed never had to worry about had broken into a parked van and stolen some electronic equipment as a result dylan had been put on probation hed completed a diversion program which allowed him to avoid any criminal charges in fact hed graduated early from the coursean unusual occurrence we were toldand with glowing praise from the counselor everyone had told us not to make too much of the incident dylan was a good kid and even the best teenage boys have been known to make colossally stupid mistakes but wed also been warned that a single misstep even shaving cream on a banister would mean a felony charge and jail time and so at the first indication that dylan might be in trouble tom had contacted a highly recommended defense attorney while part of me was incredulous that tom imagined dylan could be involved in whatever was happening at the school another part of me felt grateful in spite of toms worry hed had the foresight to be proactive i was still miles away from the idea that people might actually be hurt or that theyd been hurt by my sons hand i was simply worried that dylan in the service of some dumb practical joke might have jeopardized his future by carelessly throwing away the second chance hed been given with the successful completion of his diversion program the call of course brought much much worse news the lawyer tom had contacted gary lozow had reached out to the sheriffs office he was calling back to tell tom the unthinkable was now confirmed although reports were wildly contradictory there was no doubt something terrible involving gunmen was happening at columbine high school the district attorneys office had confirmed to gary lozow that they suspected dylan was one of the gunmen the police were on their way to our