Suzie’s House 166: Reaching Out Across the Grass

Owen watch Gene cross the grass in the park with a sense of pride and frustration. His boy was getting big. In a few more years, he’d be taller than his old man. He walked with too much confidence, though. That was all right. Once he got the boy home where he belonged, he’d make that confidence go back under ground where it belonged.

Still several feet from the park bench where Owen sat, Gene stopped stock still. His head whipped from side to side looking. Owen knew what he was looking for, but he wasn’t going to help the boy out. He’d have to ask. Maybe more than once.

“Where’s Mom?”

“Come over here and sit down,” Owen answered, pointing at the bench next to him.

“You lied.” How could the kid’s voice carry so much disappointment? Like he’d actually expected it to be a lie all along.

“Where’s your stuff? Seems to me you’re doing as much lying as I am.”

“I couldn’t get my stuff out with me. You said she’d be here waiting. She isn’t back at all, is she. You just said that so I’d come.”

“And what if I did?” When the boy backed up a couple steps, looking for all the world like he might bolt, Owen hastened to add, “Not that I did, mind you. She’s waiting back at the house. Seems to me you could be more excited to see me than her. I’m not the one who ran out on us.”

Gene flinched.

“Well, forget your stuff. Let’s go.” Owen stood up. He stepped forward, reaching for Gene’s arm.

It would all be all right soon. Gene would come home and clean the place up. He’d be there when Owen needed someone to talk to. He’d fall in line, just like he always did. This running away business was a phase, like when Gene tried to lock his room, and when he’d hide in the neighbor’s yard. Just like them, Owen would beat it out of him and everything would be the way it was supposed to be; an adoring son looking up to his old man.

“No. No, I’m not going back to your house. Not without Mom.” Gene flinched away from Owen’s grasp.

“She’s at the house, I tell you.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true. Look, she wrote a letter for me to give you..” Owen pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Gene, glad he’d thought ahead to have one of the ladies down at the office write it for him.

“Everything’s fine. I’m at the house. Can’t wait to see you again?” Gene read the letter out loud with disbelief. He bit his lip.

Owen took the letter back before Gene could think it over too clearly. He took Gene by the arm, grabbing him just above the elbow gently but firmly. No sense in spooking the kid.

“I’m parked right over here.” He guided the kid toward the road.

“Well. I guess if she’s there…”

Yep. Everything was going to be just fine. They’d be back to their old lives in no time.

“Gene! Hey, Gene! What are you doing?” Some girl shouted at them from across the park, the direction Gene had come. Right behind her that rotten idiot, Ben Hammacker showed up. The two of them came running.

Gene looked at them, then looked at where Owen was holding his arm. His expression went from placid to horrified in the blink of an eye. He shook Owen off, then skipped out of reach.

“No. No, I’m never doing that again. If Mom’s really here, have her meet me somewhere. Until I see her with my own eyes, I won’t believe you.” Gene ran off to his friends as if his life depended on it.

Owen clench his teeth. D*mn his rotten luck. It was like almost landing a huge walleye only to have it slip the hook in the last minute. That burned, but what burned worse was that Gene still, after all these years, loved his mother more than he loved his father.

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