Page 127 of The Fix-Up

“He can’t have gotten far, right?”

“Mommy, why is Mr. Gil in your room?” Oliver’s sleep-rumpled form appeared in the doorway. “Why is everyone yelling?”

“Everything’s fine. Mikey seems to have gone on another adventure.”

Oliver nodded. “He came and tolded me goodbye.”

“What?” Gil rushed to him and cupped his shoulders. “When?”

“I don’t know. I’m six. Telling time is hard.”

“I have to go look for him.” Gil rushed to the door.

“We’ll help.” With a grimace, I took in the short cotton nightgown with the words, Do You Know the Muffin Lady? on the front. “Just let me put clothes on.”

After getting dressed in the first pair of shorts and t-shirt I could find, I dragged a sleepy Oliver with me and settled him into the backseat of my car. Gil ordered me to go in one direction while he went in the other.

“We’ll cover more ground. You have your phone?”

I held it up. “I’ll call if we find him.”

“Don’t yell at him. He doesn’t like loud voices.”

“I know. I got it.”

I crept down Main Street at a snail’s pace. I saw a figure sitting on a bench in front of one of the antique stores. It wasn’t yet five in the morning and the sun was a couple of hours from rising. Everything looked like a person-sized shape in these conditions. But there he sat, clutching a sheep plushie he slept with every night. I parked and marched over to him.

“Mikey, what are you doing?” The tension in my shoulders eased.

“I’m going home.”

“You can’t leave without telling anyone.” I sat next to him on the bench.

He moved as far away as he could. “You yelled at Gilly and told him to go home.”

“You heard that?”

“I wanted to see if I could watch another episode, and you were yelling at Gilly and you told him to go home. Where Gilly goes, I go.” He nodded once, his jaw tight, as he stared into the distance.

“Why didn’t you wait and go with Gil?”

He opened his mouth and then snapped it shut, frustration stamped on his face. “I don’t know. Sometimes he doesn’t listen to me when I want him to listen.”

“What do you want to tell him?”

He shrugged. “I want to be with Gil and be home. That’s what I want.”

I wanted to ask him more—what did he mean by that? Gil was convinced Mikey wanted to be back in their house in Austin. But sometimes I wondered if that wasn’t what Mikey wanted at all. Maybe home to him wasn’t a place; it was a person. Except Gil knew his brother better than anyone. He knew what Mikey needed.

“How about I take you back to Gil? You can tell him that, okay? He’s worried about you.”

Mikey frowned. “I didn’t mean to make him worry.”

I stood and held out a hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to him.”

FIFTY-SIX

[Love is…] when you care for them and are there for them when you need them.

---