Finding Home

CHAPTER 1

Tom pulled his large suitcase off of the luggage turnstile and headed toward the automatic doors. He was exhausted and his patience was on its last frayed string. Children ran past him screaming and giggling, people stood around and watched, travel weary. Tom wondered silently if running them over with his giant rolling home in a bag would do them any harm. But they were out of his sight before he could find out. He pushed his way through the crowds of people waiting for their bags and as the doors opened cold air hit him hard, nearly knocking the air out of his lungs. It would not be the first time, or the last, that he wondered if spending his entire holiday break in Boston was a good idea.

The honk of a horn caught Tom's attention and he looked in the direction it had come from. He recognized his mother's SUV immediately and smiled. She hugged him hard, holding on to him long enough for the airport police to request they move along. The heat was blasting inside the car and Tom knew this was for his own benefit. California had made him forget what it was like to be cold. That was just one of the many excuses Tom had tried to use when his mother begged him to spend his winter break at home.

"I am so glad you're here Tommy." She was smiling ear to ear. It made Tom feel warm inside.

His mother still lived in the house where Tom grew up, so when they pulled into the driveway of the two-story craftsman with the white trim all his memories came rushing back to him. Learning to ride a bike. Falling a lot. His first broken bone. His first broken heart. They all happened here.

"The others should be here in the next few hours. The weather is making the drive a little longer than usual," his mother told him as they stepped inside the house. Tom was the only one of the kids who went West. His other siblings stayed around the area, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio. They were all driving in for Thanksgiving. With their families. Well, except his half-brother Danny. Who was still single. "Sorry, you are going to have to share your room with Danny," she continued. "We just don't have enough room for everyone anymore."

Tom's heart jumped for a beat. Danny. His mother's surprise. Tom was twelve when his mother brought Danny to the house and told he and his sisters that he was their brother. Why she had to be the one to tell them Tom still didn't know. Danny was two years older than Tom and the child of Tom's father and a woman that he'd had an affair with, fourteen years prior, as the math goes. Tom's mother agreed to raise Danny when his mother died of cancer. Tom still admires her for that. And while Tom's mother was happy to raise a house full of children, she had zero interest in continuing to raise her cheating husband and kicked him out pretty soon after Danny's arrival.

Tom pulled his giant suitcase up a flight of stairs and carried it over the worn carpet toward his old room. His heart did another backflip as he stepped over the threshold and remembered the small space, with the trophies for varying sports feats and academic achievements. "Never believe the stereotypes." He remembered saying to his mother when he came out to her at seventeen, making her question everything she knew about what being gay meant.

The bed looked smaller than he remembered. Maybe it was because now he was being asked to share it with Danny. New memories flashed by his vision and he pushed those aside. Those he needed to keep hidden. Those he needed to suppress, now more than ever.

Tom's oldest sister Allison was the first to arrive. She looked like she had been through hell, Tom supposed driving eight hours with two kids under five and a husband with a penchant for random facts about random places would do that to a person. Amy, the second oldest, arrived with her family in tow, looking in about as good of shape as Allison. Despite only having the one child who was ten. Melissa arrived shortly after with her husband and their dogs, whom they referred to as their 'instead of' children. The house was abuzz with activity. Tom entertained his nieces and nephews, a job he was suited greatly for. And although he enjoyed his time with them, he knew this was just an excuse to not sit by the door waiting for Danny walk through it.