Sixteen (ON HOLD)

1.5 Broken

Troy had walked quite a long way by the time he reached the Harrison’s front porch but he was neither tired nor out of breath. Like the kids back at the station, he didn’t remember his name and had no idea why he was drawn to this particular house when all of the houses on the street looked so similar. He stood in front of the door; solid oak painted red with a brass handle. It was full-on morning now. The sun was coming up and putting forth its best effort despite the frosty fall air.

Sellers walked up the front steps to join the boy. When Troy made no move to open the door himself Sellers rang the bell. A tall man, who had grown too thin and wore all his worries in bags under his eyes, opened the door. For a moment everything was still, while recognition slowly settled in and the man crumpled against the door frame, too choked up with tears to even speak.

“Mr. Harrison, I found Troy wandering down the main drag. He wouldn’t stop moving until we got here. Kate’s home too,” Sellers stopped for a moment, his own voice cracking with emotion, “our kids are home.”

From inside the house came a horrible wailing sound, a sound Sellers had heard a few too many times in his career. It was the unmistakable sound a mother made when you showed up at the front door and announced their child had been hurt or killed. This was not one of those times though. Mrs. Harrison, looking out an interior window and seeing just the squad car outside must have assumed the worst. Sellers knew the feeling; he had spent the last several months thinking the same thing every time the phone rang.

Suddenly Mr. Harrison stood up and threw his arms around Troy and hugged him tight. Sellers couldn’t believe that even now, seeing his father again, Troy could remain so cold and quiet. He had to be in shock. It made him worry about Kate, wondering what the hell could have happened to these kids in all this time. He shook it off and entered the house to locate the hysterical Mrs. Harrison and give her the good news.

He found her in the kitchen, kneeling on the linoleum floor, rocking and still emitting that terrible noise. Sellers looked back over his shoulder, when she had sat her morning cup of coffee down on the center island she had a perfect view out the living room window of his patrol car pulling up. Of course she feared the worst, anyone would have after so many weeks had gone by. He knelt down beside her.

“Mrs. Harrison,” he started.

“No no no no no . . ,” she wailed, rocking faster. “You don’t tell me anything! Just go. Just go now,” said continued through heavy heaving sobs.

“Mrs. Harrison, shhhh, it’s alright,” he said gently. “Your boy is home.”

In order to stop crying and hear him better she literally stopped breathing. She needed to hear it again.

“Troy is home,” Sellers repeated, a small smile crossing his lips. “He’s standing at the front door right now with your husband, I promise.” He helped her up off the floor and helped steady her since her whole body was trembling.

When she saw her son, the hysterical tears started all over again. Troy was actually starting to look slightly concerned with so much attention being bestowed on him which at least was better than showing no feelings at all as far as Sellers was concerned, but his parents didn’t agree.

“What’s wrong with him? Why isn’t he talking? Where has he been all this time?” They had a lot of questions, but Sellers didn’t have any answers for them.

“Look, all I know is that we found Cole Parks first, who also isn’t talking, and when I was sent out to look for info I found Troy just wandering around in the street. The station just radioed to tell me that my daughter Kate has returned as well, and I’m real anxious to get back to the station and see her. So let’s all take a trip down there and maybe we can get this all sorted out.”