Page 46 of Dark Endures

“But you knew if I got a woman pregnant, that I could get enough money that she’d never have to leave our baby. So there has to be more.”

I knew he was a smart kid.

“She’d need to choose what to do with her life, too. And if we got pregnant young, her choices would be harder as well, even with all the money I could give her.”

Jackpot.

He stops at Petunia’s tank. “I’m glad you sent me there. But you’re wrong.”

Wrong? “How so?”

Everett turns back to me. “I wasn’t flirting. Life stinks most of the time. And when you walk around, most people won’t even look at you, let alone smile at you. I’ve been there. I’ve lived that. I’ve spent years without seeing a single smile. No one should go a day without seeing a smile. So I smile at people—women, men. It doesn’t matter who they are. I can smile, open a door, pull out a chair, or do something nice just because. There isn’t anything wrong with that. Your lesson was to teach me all those things, but it wasn’t to teach me not to be kind to people.”

He was just being friendly. This wasn’t about flirting. “Are you interested in dating?”

“No.” He sputters. “Not now. Maybe not ever. Though sometimes I think maybe when I watch Pit fall all over himself to take care of his wife. Why aren’t you married? You’re old.”

Nosy kid. “That’s none of your business.”

“I know.” He grins. “Maybe you need a lesson.”

Little punk. “You can go now.”

“Maybe I don’t want to go.”

He isn’t talking about leaving my office or ending the lesson. “You can stay here as long as you like.”

“The other kids say you talk to them about what they want to be when they grow up.”

Do I really need to ask? “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I don’t know exactly. But I want to work with computers. And I’d like to make a difference.”

Great answer. “You didn’t mention wanting to be rich.”

“Money comes and goes. I could be a billionaire anytime. I want to make the world a better place. That sounds cheesy, but…” He shrugs.

“Would you like my job one day?” I’ve never seriously thought of offering this job to anyone, but somehow I can seeEverett being really good at it in a few years…Maybe a few decades.

“No. No way. I’d have to be nuts to do what you do.”

That’s disappointing. “Then how do you want to change the world?”

He shrugs again. “Maybe you can help me with that like you have others.”

“Maybe I can.”

“Would it be okay if I visited the daycare center again sometime?”

“That’s up to Isla, but I don’t see why not.”

“What do I have to do to get in the room with all your snakes?”

“For the non-venomous ones, become a brother. To go in with the venomous ones you need to go to school for herpetology, intern under a responsible herpetologist, and prove to me that you’re responsible enough to not get yourself or someone else killed if I let you in there.”

“You could have just said never.”

“I could have, but—”

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