The Year We Disappeared

John wakes up in the ICU after surgery, tubes running into his mouth, nose, and stomach. Polly is there. The doctors have told her that John likely won’t be able to eat food or breathe through his mouth and nose; he will probably need a trachea tube for the rest of his life. John drifts in and out of consciousness, but the pain in his jaw is a constant companion despite the medication.

The doctors perform another surgery to remove shards of metal from John’s face. They don’t sedate him (or use a local anesthetic), and he can feel everything. Unfortunately, he has no way to communicate with the doctors, so “I just waited for it to be over” (59). The surgeon believes he can reconstruct John’s face and give him “some semblance of a normal life” (60), although the surgeries will take years. He is 36.

After the surgery, John is visited by fellow officer and former mentor Don Price, the man John rode with as a rookie. John describes the car that followed him (a blue sedan) and mentions the name “Raymond Meyer.” No one has seen Meyer since the shooting, Price tells him. In the following days, most of John’s fellow officers visit him in the ICU, except for two who “I knew were tight with Meyer” (64). This confirms his suspicion that Meyer is the one who ordered the hit.

At her Aunt Kate’s and Uncle Joe’s house in Natick, MA, Cylin and her brothers swim with their cousins and grill burgers for dinner. Kate and Joe allow all the kids to stay up late and watch TV. Cylin enjoys the departure from her usual routine although she wonders why no one is talking about her father. The next morning, she finds her mother in the kitchen talking to Kate and Joe. Polly tries to be honest with her daughter—within reason for a nine-year-old—about John’s condition, unlike her uncle Joe who claims, “he’s doing real good” (67).

As Cylin eats breakfast with her brothers and cousins, they discuss John’s past surgeries: vasectomy, removal of a tumor. He recovered from those, and Cylin assumes this surgery will be no different. Polly spends the next several days at the hospital while Cylin and her brothers swim and eat “all the junk food we wanted” (70). Sitting by the pool, her cousin Lauren, who spreads unfounded rumors, tells her that her father is in a coma and will probably die. 

John undergoes another surgery, this time to remove small glass shards from his eyes. Later that day, John is wheeled into a small amphitheater where his surgeons explain to an audience of fellow doctors how they plan to reconstruct his face, a process some believe will take years.

The Falmouth Police Department, John claims, has its share of corruption. Local cops understand that certain residents are “untouchable” and should never be cited for any violation. On his fifth day in the hospital, two fellow officers visit, and they inform John that Larry Mitchell, a “dirty cop,” was seen meeting with Raymond Meyer in the alley behind the police station. Meyer owns a garbage disposal business under contract with the city of Falmouth, and even five days after John’s shooting, he has not been questioned. John suspects Meyer is one of the city’s untouchables and will never be prosecuted. He resolves to go after Meyer himself.

Back at Kate and Joe’s house, more relatives visit, including Polly’s mother who seems convinced that John is going to die; but Cylin is confused by the conflicting prognoses: Her grandmother and cousin believe her father will certainly die, but her mother claims he will recover. That night, Polly informs the children that they can visit their father the next day, and she tries to prepare them for it. She describes the bloody bandages, the tubes and machines, and the fact that he can’t speak. Despite Polly’s reassurances, Cylin suspects her mother is hiding something, that her father will die just like her cousin predicts.