A Song For the Road by Rayne Lacko

Author:Rayne Lacko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SparkPress
Published: 2019-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

CARTER COULDN’T SLEEP THAT NIGHT. HE’D given back Mitch’s phone before he remembered he was supposed to ask Mr. and Mrs. Liu for a ride back to Tulsa. He wasn’t even sure they were still in Albuquerque. He wasn’t sure of much, and the worry of it kept his eyes from closing. Mama was moving into the high school gymnasium the next day. He needed to see for himself if she was all right, help her however he could. Good thing Lola May was there. But one image kept popping front and center in his mind: sitting next to his father in a recording studio. Sure, all they’d be playing was a little ditty about pancakes and sausage links. Truth was, he wouldn’t care if they sang about two bullfrogs mating in a river bog. He just wanted to make music with his daddy again.

His mother wasn’t going to like Eddie’s plan, and she sure wasn’t going to want Ma Joad’s money. All Eddie cared about was “his personal gain,” his mama used to say. Back when Carter was just a kid, his parents used to fight about it all the time. Sandra thought Eddie was only using Carter, “his little trained monkey,” trying to get rich off him. When other children were going to birthday parties and baseball games on the weekends, Eddie was hauling Carter around the countryside to perform at county fairs, bars, and even on street corners, hoping to get discovered.

Carter grabbed his notebook and Kaia’s pen and tried to sort it all out in a letter to her. Nothing came out right. No matter what he chose, helping Mama or helping his dad, he was letting someone down. Whether he went back east to Oklahoma, or out west to California, he had a bunch of explaining to do. He couldn’t figure where he was needed most. As the morning sun rose over the golden hills, it was the first time he gave up trying to write a letter to Kaia.

Carter sat in silence in the kitchen. He didn’t have any stomach for breakfast. He’d been at The Little Yucca coming on two weeks, and he knew it was time to move on.

Mitch’s boots were loud on the linoleum, but Carter didn’t turn around when he heard him come into the kitchen. “Well, good morning to you,” Mitch said, pausing before the boy. Carter was too worn out from trying to figure his next move to offer anything more than a nod. Mitch held out a crisp white envelope to him.

Carter recognized the oversize, loopy handwriting on the envelope immediately. It belonged to none other than Kaia Liu. He held back a moment before taking it from Mitch. Carter had told her pretty much everything that came to mind every day he’d been away, and he couldn’t help feeling close to her for having shared his heart. But seeing her letter reminded him he didn’t know her well enough to guess what she might have to say in return.

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