Under the Sunlight

Chapter 3

It was a week and a half after Collins Falls. During that week, Jacob had done a lot of thinking. About life and what he needed to take away from Mabel and her sad fate. Would Mabel have left that town had things turned out different? Probably. Part of him hoped where ever she was, that she was finally free.

The best thing he could do for Mabel now was to honor her memory by living his life. He hadn't been quite able to explain to her that part of his responsibilities had been his son. She would have given him another pass like she had him trying to keep the business afloat. What Jacob should have been doing was getting Max the hell out of there. Josie too. They should have left that town when they got married.

He wasn't so sure that would have saved their marriage. That probably would have fallen apart anyway. But maybe Josie would have liked the real him. And maybe there was a side of her that would have come out in a new circumstance that he would have liked. Or at least, maybe even if their divorce was a certainty, she might have ended up in the end with a man that was good for her. After all, she was a good woman who deserved someone better than Chuck.

He at least knew that Josie's mind was at ease knowing that Max was thriving here. He'd just been graduated out of his program and on their advice he'd gotten Max into a preschool. The term had already started but they were good about allowing late comers. He'd start on Monday.

Jacob was thinking about going into the Annex on Monday and coming clean to the others about his family. The job was dangerous, after all, though he had made contingency plans in case he met the fate of many Librarians before him. But it was getting harder and harder to juggle childcare with the demands of the job and he realized maybe it wouldn't hurt to explain his circumstances to the others.

Besides that, Mabel's life had shown him he needed to not only embrace this new world for himself, but introduce Max to it as well. All that knowledge and the world literally at his Back Door? What an amazing opportunity for a child.

Perhaps Max was a little too young right now for it. But in a few years they could travel, anywhere they wanted to go. And he wouldn't have to worry about airplanes and hotels and taking him out of school. They could nip to Athens for dinner or China for the weekend. Yeah, he'd probably have to wait until he was older. It would be hard to tell a 4 year old to not quite tell his friends about a magic door.

Jacob chuckled to himself and said 4 year old looked up at him.

"Sorry cowboy, I was thinking of something funny that happened at work. How was your last day at the center?"

Max frowned. "It was okay. I'm gonna miss Andra. She wasn't there today and she was sad last time."

Jacob put his arm around Max. Max had talked a lot about the volunteer who had befriended him. Jacob hadn't met Andra (he assumed her name was Andrea) but he had intended on asking about her today. But it had slipped his mind in his haste to pick Max up. There had been paperwork and his mind had been full of other things. Most of them were about Mabel, but partly Cassandra too. She'd been avoiding him since Collins Falls, he was pretty sure that she thought he blamed her for what happened. He needed to make that right, his turning down what was probably her attempt at clearing the air had probably hurt her. Poor thing, he knew about guilt and what had happened was not her fault.

"Well, I can give them a call on Monday and see about getting her phone number. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you, okay?"

Max grinned up at him, "thanks, Daddy."

"Alright, ready to get this grocery shopping done?"

"Yes, sir." And Max flipped him a salute that always caused Jacob to laugh.