Suzie’s House 359 : What Gene Wanted the Most

Gene sat on the edge of his bed with his shoulders all slumped and everything. There was Lisa and Ben in the room, too, but Tracy didn’t think they’d want to hang out for long, no matter how meddlesome Lisa might be. Tracy sat next to Gene, but she didn’t’ try to rub his back or anything this time. She couldn’t bear to be shrugged off again.

“I’m sorry about your father,” Lisa said. “But I don’t think you did anything wrong. I mean, maybe it would have been better if you hadn’t beat him up, but at least you didn’t stab him or anything. So cheer up, all right?”

“No. It’s not about my father. It’s my mother.” Gene slumped even more.

They all stood or sat there waiting for him to say something more. Just about the time Tracy couldn’t stand it a minute longer, he started to talk.

“All my life I’ve been waiting for her to come and get me. No matter what my father said, I just knew that some day she’d change her mind about leaving me behind and come get me.”

He looked around at each of them like he wanted to be sure they understood.

“You know how some kids dream that they are really royalty and someday a king or queen will discover them and whisk them away? Well, for me it was my mom. Someday she’d come and take me away. And when she did, everything would be good. We’d be happy together. We’d have everything we needed and just live nice, normal lives. I wanted that in the worst way.”

He looked down and blinked a little bit. Tracy thought he might cry, but he didn’t. His voice was quiet, but steady when he started talking again.

“But now I know it won’t ever happen. I mean, really know, not just me telling myself. Because I think the only way she would have stayed away so long was if she really was dead. She didn’t come for me because she couldn’t. He murdered her. And now there’s no way I can have the life I was supposed to have.”

They all sat in silence for a minute or two. Tracy thought what he’d said was so important, she should maybe find a way to put it in a song. It was just too good to leave alone.

“Wow,” Lisa said. “I had no idea.”

“But, you aren’t going to try to kill him or anything, right?” Ben looked first at Gene, then at the rest of them. He had a point.

“No. No matter how much I hate him, I’m not going to try to kill him or anything. That’s one thing I learned from all this. It would feel worse to kill him than just to let him rot.”

“That’s the way,” Lisa said. “I like you better feisty.”

“Shouldn’t you go to the police? He IS a murderer. Right?” Lisa looked all concerned.

“It’s just me talking. They wouldn’t believe me.”

“So he’s going to get away with murder,” Tracy said. Her stomach churned.

“He already did.”

“So what? You aren’t going to do anything?”

“No. I’m going to do something. I’m going to let Mrs. H. adopt me. If that’s all right with you, Ben. I mean, if you don’t mind me being your brother.”

“I told you before. You already are.”

If you enjoy Suzie’s House and would like to see more, please leave a comment. Suzie’s House is powered by its readers.