Page 133 of The One for Me
“Where are your crutches?” I ask.
“I left them outside the park. I couldn’t get in with them.”
I tell myself not to get angry at that. “Are you hurt?”
He shakes his head.
Well, at least there’s that. Still, I need to get to the bottom of it and then get him home. “Why did you run off?”
His gaze goes to home plate and then back to me. “I don’t want to go back to Sugarloaf.”
“Why?”
“Because everything there is sad.”
I remember feeling the same way. Bad things happened there. People died there. Fathers became abusive assholes and ruined the lives of kids. It was the place where dreams were crushed, and mothers were lost.
Telling Austin how wrong he is or that it will be better won’t change the fact that, to him, it’s the reality of his life.
“Aunt Devney and I aren’t sad.”
He looks over. “I heard the truth.”
The dread in my stomach tightens, and I do everything to make him say it. If he heard the truth about him not moving here, then I’m not going to be the one to tell him that Devney is really his mother.
“What’s that?”
“That Aunt Devney isn’t my aunt.”
I was afraid of that. Still, I won’t lie to him, but this isn’t my conversation to have. So, I’ll tell him how I feel about the whole thing and maybe he’ll be able to understand.
“Life is hard. When you’re a grown-up, you have to decide what’s right and wrong at that moment. As a kid, you just feel and do something, not knowing the consequences.”
“Like running away?”
“Yeah. And even when you grow up, you still make bad decisions and sometimes, when you run away from your problems, you never really get to stop. It happened to me, when I was in college, something happened, and instead of doing what I should’ve, I made a different choice and ran. It’s taken me a really long time to finally be able to stop.”
“Was I what you were running from? Are you my father?” he asks.
“No, I wish I was, though.”
“You do?”
I nod. “You’re a great kid, and I love Devney very much. However, if you were my son, we would’ve made a different choice. You might have never had your mom and dad in your life the way you did. I think you should talk to your aunt. Let her explain, and maybe you can both find a way to understand, but running away is never the right answer.”
“I’m sorry.” His lip quivers, and my heart breaks a bit.
“I know you are, buddy. How about we go back and let Devney fuss over you?”
“She’s going to be so upset.”
“She probably will be, but if she didn’t love you so much, she wouldn’t have known you were gone or be as worried as she is.”
I scoop him up and carry him to where he left his crutches. I don’t know how he got all the way over here without them, and right now, I don’t want to know. He’s safe, and I didn’t have to break my promise to Devney.
The rest, we can figure out.
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