Jaxon With an X by D.K. Wall

Author:D.K. Wall [Wall, D. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Conjuring Reality LLC

32

Connor turned a chair at the end of the patient hall around so he could face out the window and stare at the snowcapped mountains. His mind buzzed in horror at the story he had heard. His body was balled up with his feet pulled up in the seat to his butt, his arms hugging his legs against his chest, and his chin resting on his knees. A forgotten Mountain Dew bought from the vending machines, his excuse for leaving the room, sat sweating on the table beside him.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t hear Heather slip out of the patient room until she wrapped her arms around him from behind and kissed the top of his head.

He leaned his head back against her and looked up into her eyes, not surprised to see them filled with tears. He wanted to cry, scream, shout, go beat the shit out of the man who had done those horrible things to his brother. With effort, he focused instead to remain steady for his mother. “How did he do it? Survive… that?”

Heather kissed his forehead and sighed. She opened her mouth, struggled for the words, then closed it again and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Connor closed his eyes, thinking of the little brother he remembered, tottering around with picture books until he could start sounding out words. He would demand that Connor read to him, but Connor grew tired of the same stories over and over and would invent tales instead. They had argued one night after Connor had Winnie the Pooh being carted off by space aliens and the X-Men battling the aliens. Jax argued that wasn’t how the story went.

By the time Jaxon was in the first grade, he was reading at a fourth-grade level, books assigned by Connor’s teachers that Connor hadn’t cared about reading and had left lying around the house. The older boy was the daredevil, pushing the limits with his bicycle or the skateboard he got from Jared down the street, climbing trees, or wading into creeks. He loved video games and action movies but never cared much for reading. His interests hadn’t changed much in the intervening years.

His breathing tightened, and the tears he didn’t want to shed threatened. “I failed him.”

Heather squeezed him tightly. “Con, no. You never failed him.”

“Yeah, I did. I had to go off with my friends and left him all alone in that playground. If I had stayed with him, that pervert would never have come up to us. And if he had, I would’ve known better than to fall for the lost-dog thing.” He crossed his arms and hugged himself. “What kind of brother abandons his little brother?”

“A nine-year-old boy who was being asked to do far more than he should ever have been asked.” Heather squeezed his shoulders and forced him to look at her. “That’s what you were, a little kid asked to grow up too quick. You want to blame someone? Blame me. What kind of mother leaves

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