A New Dawn

Chapter 41 - Briar

I don't realize I start to drift off to sleep until I hear someone say something mid-sentence. My mind's too groggy to focus on it. On top of that, all I can think about is Idris.

I gently run my hand through his hair, listening to his even breaths. I can't believe his parents actually threw him out just because he talked back and defended me. I don't care how disrespectful they found him. They shouldn't have thrown him out. They shouldn't have done a lot of things, but especially not this.

I don't think there's anything I can do for him except be here. But I don't even know if that's enough.

With the anger coursing through me, my mind starts to clear, and I pick up on the voices a little more clearly. I tilt my head back and see the porch light streaming in through the open windows. The voices are distant, but I know one of them belongs to Dad.

Guess he's having a hard time sleeping, too.

I don't think much of it, but then I hear Grandpa's voice drift in from outside, too. Weird... I don't think they've ever talked this late before. Or even really by themselves. Or in hushed voices.

I know it's not any of my business, but it's not like I can move. I don't want to risk waking Idris up, and if they suspect I'm awake and hearing all this, they'll stop talking. Which might be a good thing sometimes, but something's telling me to keep quiet right now.

"Briar really is your daughter," I hear Grandpa chuckle. "I thought I would find her down here with Idris."

"She's really caring," Dad says. There's a slight pause before he adds, "And if that makes her my daughter, that makes her your granddaughter."

"A little bit. Your mom was caring, too. And she was a lot more considerate about a lot of things than I could ever be."

Dad doesn't respond right away, and that pretty much confirms what Grandpa said about himself. Then: "Did you ever think about throwing me out?"

I inhale, my hand pausing in Idris' hair. It doesn't take long for Grandpa to say, "No. Never. I would never have thrown you out." Oh, good. At least he's not exactly like Idris' parents then... I don't think he's ever proven himself to be like them this summer... "Did you ever think I would throw you out?"

"No." Exasperation floods Dad's voice. That only ever happens when he thinks something is obvious. "Of course not. I didn't think you'd throw me out just because you were disappointed in me."

"I wasn't disappointed—"

"Yes." I hear a creak and it sounds like Dad walks a distance away. He always needs to move when he has pent-up energy. Like me. "You were disappointed in me, Dad."

There's another creak and another set of footsteps. "Gareth, I wasn't. I was just worried about your future."

"Oh, please," Dad sighs. "You weren't just worried about that. You were worried about me not listening to you. If it was just about my future, you wouldn't have told me I should spend more time in reality instead of getting caught up in things that ultimately don't matter when it was what mattered the most to me at the time. And I'm not talking about reading and writing. I'm talking about every little thing I did that wasn't exactly what you wanted." Dad takes a deep breath. When he talks again, his voice comes out a little calmer but not any less urgent. "Every time you said something about how I dressed or what I did for fun or who I hung out with or my thoughts on anything, it only made me want to read and write more, so I could forget that you didn't understand how important it was for me to have that escape from... you."

There's a tense moment of silence, and I almost expect one of them to come through the front door and walk away from the conversation. But then I hear Grandpa sigh. "I didn't realize you thought like that."