Page 55 of No More Hiding
“I felt bad for him when he came into the shop looking like a deer caught in the headlights. If I hadn’t made time for him, I bet he’d still be giving his best Shaggy impression.”
“Shaggy didn’t have a beard though,” Tyler said.
“I think the beard looks good on him,” she said.
“It makes him look older than he is,” Kelly said. “Let me find you a picture of him without it.”
“No, Mom. Don’t embarrass me anymore.”
“It’s not embarrassing. Your girlfriend has the right to see you without facial hair. Something tells me you aren’t going to shave it anytime soon.”
He ran his hand over his cheek. “I like it. I think Vivian does too. She told me that yesterday afternoon.” She felt her cheeks flush. He thought he was being so cute making that comment. After the second time they’d gone to her room, he’d given her some massive whisker burns on her chest. At first it’d tickled and she’d told him so.
Figures he’d bring it up here.
“I’d love to see pictures of Brent when he was younger.”
“Let me get my albums,” Kelly said. “You can see him and Maureen as teens too.”
Brent looked at her and squinted one eye. “Not fair. Dad, you aren’t going to help me on this?”
“Nope. You’re on your own.”
“But once I leave she is going to be talking your ear off about this rather than the help I need,” he argued.
“She will be. It’s still a better conversation. Trust me.”
Vivian sat through another hour of pictures and stories about Brent and got a good idea of what he was like as a kid.
“He was a nerd,” Tyler said. “He would much rather sit in front of a computer monitor than go outside and get fresh air.”
“You did the same thing with video games,” Kelly told Tyler. “I bet you still do. Don’t be busting on your brother. Maureen is the only one that enjoyed the outdoors.”
“She was very pretty,” Vivian said while she flipped through another album of pictures of the three kids. There were none of these in her history that she knew of. Nothing more than what her grandparents had that had been sent to them prior to her moving there. And it wasn’t much. Her mother didn’t like to share often. Or it was more like all the pictures of her were professional ones and not funny snapshots like in the Elliot family.
“Maureen was the light of our family,” Tyler said. “We’ve heard it enough. She’d just tell you that her batteries were used up too fast.”
“That’s both sad and sweet at the same time,” she said.
She’d learned that visiting so far. That there was no sadness when they spoke of Maureen and it made her wonder what Brent’s comments were that Rob had saved him.
“It took Brent a long time to realize that,” Kelly said. “But he had help.”
Brent’s good nature dropped then. “Yeah,” he said. “I did.”
“And he’s getting help again with you while he goes through it a second time,” Drew said.
“Brent seems fairly stable to me. His previous appearance not included.”
“Brent is good at hiding things,” Tyler said. “We all know it. Be aware.”
“Thanks, guys,” Brent said, looking at her.
Guess maybe they both had some secrets.
18
Curse And A Burden
