Page 90 of Wrap Around
“I still think you should take the contract,” I say eventually. “We don’t know what the future looks like, but we’ll figure it out. Together.”
I’m not sure if he’s agreeing to take the contract, but he smiles softly like he believes we can get through this. LikeI’mthe dream, not Calgary.
We talk about everything that’s happened between us, and the things we missed, until the sun starts to dip and our stomachs let us know it’s getting late. Before we can pull on our shoes, we hear a little voice squeal, “Dada!”
Addy barrels into Silas and climbs into his lap, chattering about bubbles and flowers and something she saw by the water. Lily trails behind, smilingfaintly.
Then my little pickle leans over and hands me a smooth, grey river rock that she must have found on their walk along the bank to get to us. I kiss her chubby little hand and thank her for the present.
Silas smiles at me like he has the whole world right here, and it hits me?—
I don’t need anything more than this.
I can see it, our future. All of us. Silas on the ice, Addy in my arms, and Lily next to me as we cheer him on together. Waking up every morning with the man I’ve loved my whole life next to me.
I only catch the tail end of what Lily is saying. Something about coffee with Zac tomorrow, trying to explain, trying to make it right.
Silas has gone pale.
I can see the fear on his face without him saying a word. I’m sure he has the same questions burning through him. What if shedoesstay? What if Zac becomes a fixture in her life.Theirlife? What if he wants parental rights and she doesn’t have a choice but to stay?
Would Silas stay too? Give up everything to move back to this pit of hate and despair?
I reach for his hand, and he lets me hold it. I close my eyes and send a prayer into the universe.
Please. Let us keep this. Let us keep each other.
We walk home like a family.
I’m on the outside, my hand clasped in Silas’s. Addy is between him and Lily, giggling as they swing her up into the air. Silas is still quiet, but I can feel the tension radiating off him. I squeeze his hand.I’m here. We’re okay.
The truck in the driveway is the first thing I see. It’s the same one he’s been driving forever. It’s old and rusted, with bumper stickers about Trump, God, and guns. Unmistakable.
Silas stops short. His father is leaning against the tailgate, arms crossed, eyes burning holes through us. Unbridled hate and disgust roll off him in waves, filling the humid air with an ominous tension like a storm rolling in.
My hand feels cold and empty when Silas pulls his hand from mine. He steps to the right, putting himself in front of my sister and his little girl. “Lily, take Addy and get her inside somewhere. She doesn’t need to see this.”
Lily doesn’t argue. She scoops up Addy and hurries towards her parent’s house, throwing one last look over her shoulder. Abraham Caldwell doesn’t take his eyes off his son.
“I went looking for you, boy,” he spits. “And you know what I saw?”
Every muscle in my body clenches.
“I came looking to set you right, and had to see the boy I raised, that I fed and housed under my roof, andhimrutting like animals in the woods.” He sneers and spits again. “If I’d had my gun, I would have shot you on sight.”
Silas’ spine straightens, chin lifting in defiance, but he doesn’t say anything to his father. In the past, it was just better to let the old man run out of steam, but I don’t know that we’ll get that lucky today. He’s on the war path.
“You’re an abomination,” he snaps. “I knew you were fucked up. You were born wrong, even killed your mother on your way out.“
“You killed her,” Silas says sternly. “She needed medical attention, and you gave her scripture. She would have been fine if not foryou.”
Abraham ignores his son’s interruption and keeps ranting. He goes off about how everything wrong in his life was because of the devil inside the abomination posing as his son.
“I knew I should have buried you with her, but the good Pastor Shepherd cautioned me against it. And look what he got for that wisdom, you turned his son into a–“
“Nothing made us this way,” Silas snaps back, cutting him off. “It’s not nature or nurture. It’s just part of who we are, like the color of our eyes or being left-handed or right. Lord knows if it could be beaten out of someone, it would’ve been done.”
The old man snarls when I step up beside Silas and lace my fingers through his. He glances at me, and we share a smile that keeps all of my pieces together.
