Freaks

22- Silence

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Malakai drives with headlights following behind him. He tries not to think too far ahead, like where his father is going and what he has to go through by himself now. He wonders if it will be any different without him around.

The night gets darker, lights get brighter. His mind wanders off into those thoughts. Something so simple as Aster's laugh vaguely playing in the back of his memory makes him feel homesick. The time on the clock feels wrong. The sound of his shoes on the rough ground starts to fade away. The spinning of his bicycle wheels rust and break. Childhood is starting to turn and run out of the door, instantly leaving him on a tightrope.

It's time to grow up, time to be serious. It will be different. Everything will be.

He approaches his grandma's house, it's all decked out with new summer trinkets of bright colors and old antiques from stores on the square. All of her plants and lawn are well kept up considering her age. He gets a small stab of nostalgia seeing her house again, it reminds him he doesn't have to let all of it go.

He goes up to her door and presses her dingy doorbell that makes an awful-sounding song when he releases it. He opens the screen door as he waits for a long few minutes and soon hears her steady footsteps coming to the old wood door. The knob wiggles harshly until she finally yanks it open with a grunt.

He stands there like a sad lump as she moves her glasses up her nose and she registers his face. She covers her mouth with her wrinkled hand and reaches out to hug him, he has to bend down to give her an accurate hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay." She says with her tired voice.

"Sorry if I woke you up. The cops told me to come here first."

She looks back at him with a thin smile, "I wasn't sleeping well anyway. Not with you missing."

He presses his lips furiously, "It was my dad."

Her brows furrow.

"That's why he left you with Roo. He did all of this." He continues.

Her face slowly washes white in shock, "The cops never said anything about him to me. They only asked me if I knew where to find him, I told him he was on that trip."

"None of them knew until now. I'm sure dad tried to resolve it if they called him about me, probably cried his way through."

"Well, I called him..." She thinks and then grabs his arm and drags him inside, closing the door, "I never liked that man. He was too...jumpy. Why would he do that to you?"

"For drugs. He faked my death for drugs because apparently, he's an addict. The whole time...since Michelle...he's been lying."

She shakes her head, "That's no surprise to me. Explains his damn mind."

Ruth's voice echoes from the hallway corner, "Dad?" They both look over as her eyes are glimmering wet, half of her face past the wall.

Malakai's mouth opens but no words approach, he turns to her but she flees behind the wall. He paces up and turns the corner, she stands farther away, crying.

"Is he in jail?" She asks.

He walks slower and crouches down before her, grabbing her hands, "He is." He fights those words out, her eyes press shut, "But we're gonna be fine. You got me?"