Nine Years Gone by Chris Culver

Author:Chris Culver [Culver, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

29

Ashley had slammed her door so hard that the knob hadn’t caught. I knocked on the frame to let her know I was there before pushing the door open and watching as it soundlessly swung inward on well-oiled hinges. Ashley sat on the edge of her bed, a teddy bear clutched to her chest and tears nearly the size of dimes sliding down her face.

“Can I come in?”

She didn’t respond, so I stayed in the doorway. “Please talk to me, sweetheart.”

She hugged her teddy bear tighter. “No.”

“Would you talk to Aunt Katherine if she were here?”

“I only want to talk to Mommy.”

She wouldn’t even look at me. I took a step back. “I understand. Are you okay up here?”

“I’m fine.”

“I love you, and I want to see you. When you want to come down, I’ll be waiting.”

She didn’t respond, so I went downstairs to the kitchen, almost tripping on Simon’s favorite ball. We hadn’t told Ashley about Simon yet, mostly because I didn’t have the heart. Simon was her friend, maybe her only one in this strange, new home, and finding out that he was dead would break her heart so badly that only time, and a lot of it, would be able to mend it. I didn’t look forward to that. I made a cup of tea in the microwave and sat at the dining room table and listened while Ashley cried upstairs.

I used to think I’d make a pretty good parent, but I don’t know any more. While I waited for Katherine and Vince to come home to pick Ashley up, I did some dishes and swept up the kitchen. My niece came down as I knelt with the dustpan. She walked right to me and gave me a hug, something I needed more than I had realized.

“Hi, honey,” I said, putting my arms around her back. “Are you okay?”

She nodded against my shoulder. “Do I still have to do my homework?”

I smiled, but tried not to let her see it. “Yes. And if you start now, you can watch TV for half an hour when you’re done.”

She nodded again. “Okay.”

We walked to the dining room table and sat together for the next half hour. Normally, that time would have had at least one break in it to play with Simon, but thankfully, she thought he was in a pet boarding facility until we fixed our backdoor. Eventually, Katherine and Vince stopped by with cheeseburgers and French fries from a place on Manchester Road. It was my niece’s favorite meal, what she had subsisted on for several years under my sister’s care.

Vince stayed just long enough to give Ashley a hug before going home to get some new clothes, letting us sit down as a family to eat. We didn’t have fast food very often—less than once a month—so it was a special treat, and Ashley devoured hers. By the time she was done, she was smiling and laughing. If only we could all be so resilient.

After dinner

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