“Josh, honey, are you alright?” Mary said, putting her cleaning supplies down to grab her son in a bear hug.
Josh wept a little, but he tried his best to hide it from us all.
“It was a gift from his father,” Mary said over his head to me.
I can’t even begin to convey how big of an ass I felt at this point. If you’ve read all of my journals, you know I have a penchant for saying or doing the wrong thing at the ultimate wrong time, but this one? This one took the cake.
“What…what am I going to do if…if Da…Dad comes home with the parts for it now?” Josh sobbed into his mother’s arms.
“Josh, he’d understand. You were trying to do something good for someone else; you guys would rebuild it, that’s all, honey,” Mary said. She seemed to have correctly punched all the right buttons. Josh pulled back from her arms, wiping his tears away.
“I’ve got another car, Mr. Talbot, if you want to try again, that is,” he said to me.
“I would, Josh. My friend is out there and I’d like to find him.”
“I understand because if I knew where my dad was, I’d try to find him too,” Josh said, wiping his nose and extricating himself from Mary’s arms. “I’ll be right back,” he said, heading back upstairs.
Mary let out a half sob, half gasp. “I’m watching him grow up right before my eyes. Sometimes, he’ll always be my sweet six-year-old, and then sometimes like now, I can see the man that he is becoming.”
Gary finished cleaning up the carpet as Josh rummaged around in his room.
Josh came down the stairs with what looked like the monster truck version of a radio-controlled vehicle.
“Oh, honey are you sure?” Mary asked, placing her hand to her chest. “That was a Christmas present.”
“Mom, Hugo is the best chance Mr. Talbot has of getting to his friend.”
I gathered that Hugo was the name of the truck. “Josh, I don’t know how this is going to turn out.”
“He never does,” Gary added for good measure, coming back from the kitchen.
“I thought the peanut gallery was closed?” I said hotly.
“Boys,” Mary said, playing referee.
“It’s alright, Mr. Talbot. Maybe if you find your friend, then you could go and maybe find my dad.”
I looked over at Mary. I would be lying if I said anything but the truth of where I thought his father was.
“I know that look,” Josh said. “You don’t think my dad is alive. But he has to be! He wouldn’t have just left us, not now.”
“Josh, I will promise you this, if I can get to my friend and get back, I will go check out where you think your dad went.”
“Electronix Emporium,” Josh said quickly, now beaming. “No fooling? You’ll go check?”
“He’s a lot of things and many of them not good, Josh, but a liar isn’t one of them,” Gary said.
“Gotta love a good, back-handed compliment,” I told my brother.
He nodded his head in appreciation.
We moved to a different window on the same side of the house, one where we hoped there would be less zombies. We were right, but then we encountered our next situation - Hugo would not fit through the bars.
“It’s almost like it wasn’t meant to happen,” Gary said. “Like a sign, a bunch of signs.”
“Since when did you become a fortune teller?” I asked him sarcastically.
“Since my fortune got tied up in yours,” he answered quickly.
“As good a time as any, I suppose,” I told him.
“It’s only going to fit out the door,” Josh said, slamming the window down before we attracted any more visitors.
“I’d rather not open any doors,” Mary said.
“How were you planning on letting me out?” I asked.
“Hadn’t thought that far,” Mary said, as realization dawned on her that she really hadn’t gotten that far.
“See what happens when you’re around him for too long?” Gary asked sympathetically.
“Is that like his vampire psychic powers warping our mortal minds?” Josh asked expectantly.
“No, he’s always had this effect on people,” Gary said dryly.
Josh looked a little bummed that it wasn’t a supernatural cause that made those around me go crazy.
“Back door for the car, front door for me?” I asked the household.