In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Twenty-Three

I woke up the next morning to the sun beaming in through the bright picture windows in the living room. Carefully, I cracked open one eye, then yawned and stretched.

Beside me, Cameron stirred. I'd almost forgotten he was there—I guessed a part of me thought he'd have left. But he'd stayed, and he was still lying on the couch with half the blanket over his lap. I must have kicked off the other half because it was dragging on the plush cream carpet.

"Hey, Evelyn," he said, smoothing down my hair. I tilted my head to look up at him and smiled.

"What time is it?" I asked sleepily, looking around the room for some sign of the hour. "We're going to be late for school."

He yawned, then checked the black watch that was always on his left wrist. "Just after six," he said. "We have plenty of time. Can I make breakfast?"

"If you really want to." Kicking the blanket onto the floor, I stood up stretched again, still half-asleep. I was surprised with how well I'd slept considering the events of the previous night. Memories of the police at my doorstep and Mr. Klein's threatening words rushed back to me, and my stomach dropped.

For just a moment, I'd actually been happy. Now I was worried all over again about what was going to happen to my future.

Cameron folded up the blanket neatly and then went into the kitchen to start on breakfast. For a few moments, I stood still and listened to the opening and closing of cabinet doors and the sound of silverware and pans; then, I turned and headed upstairs to get ready.

When I went back downstairs twenty minutes later, after waking my sisters up and freshening up sufficiently, Cameron was dribbling syrup on four stacks of pancakes, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated. I smiled and coughed to announce my presence; he started and glanced up, clearly surprised.

"Evelyn!" he exclaimed. "Perfect timing; I just finished. Hey, I was thinking. Do you and Maddie and Clare want to go to the park this weekend?"

It barely even registered that he'd stopped asking about my father. He hadn't said, "If your dad's home, do you want to go to the park with me?" I wondered if he'd subconsciously decided my dad wasn't coming back, or if he had finally pieced everything together for certain.

"Sure," I said, taking forks out of the drawer and beginning to cut up my sisters' pancakes.

"Actually, how about we go to the bird park? Maddie and Clare would really like that."

Cameron didn't even know what he'd said. I glanced up and stared at him for what felt like hours, but he had obliviously gone back to finishing up breakfast, not even noticing my shocked expression. I hadn't gone to the bird park since my seventh birthday, with Mom and Dad.

"Um..." I kept cutting the food, focusing on the rhythmic pattern, trying to decide what I was going to say. "Sure?"

"We don't have to if you don't want to," he said—he must have noticed my hesitation.

I thought of Maddie and Clare, who had never been to the bird park, and how much they would enjoy it. After weighing the pros and cons for a few moments, I said, "No, it's fine. Sorry. I was half thinking of something else."

~*~*~

I spent the rest of the week trying to act natural when Mr. Klein was watching the house, struggling to balance my grades with my job and my sisters, and worrying about the weekend. A part of me thought I would completely break down when we arrived at the park—then Cameron would ask me what was wrong and I wouldn't be able to answer him...