Dom Luka The Other S

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“You do not hear Jay’s truck!” Jessica called, following him. But, a moment
later she was ignoring Frank’s dubious look as she heard the familiar soun
d of Jay’s engine.
Frank grinned. “Gotta go. I’ll be back before dark.”
Jessica sighed and rushed to the door before Frank had a chance to open it,
lifting her hand to his shoulder as a few lines of worry touched her forehea
d. “Are you sure this is how you want to spend your birthday?”
“It’s fine, Mom,” Frank insisted. “Besides, I promised Oliver, and it’s not hi
s fault David only gets to see visitors once a month. If we don’t go today it’
s another thirty days, and it’s already been over six months since...”
“Okay, okay,” Jessica cut him off as she raised a hand in defeat. “I just w
ant you to have a good day. Do you want me to go with you, just in case the
re are any problems?”
“There won’t be. We already called ahead, and we both know you don’t rea
lly wanna go.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to...”
“Mom. It’s fine. I gotta go, alright? See you tonight.”
After leaving a quick kiss to her cheek Frank was outside, tossing the coo
ler into the bed of Jay’s truck and moving through the passenger door to o
vercrowd the bench seat where Jay was at the wheel and Jenny and Oliver oc
cupied the middle. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to travel, but Frank
was comfortable enough with his company not to mind.
Jay and Jenny had been good friends to Frank, even forgiving him when they
discovered that he had no eye for photography whatsoever. Jay had once sa
id it was nice to have a friend who didn’t know everything about him down
to the bad haircut he’d had when he was eight, and in him Frank had found
the kind of person he could call up late on a Monday night just because he
was too bored to come up with a good reason to sleep. It was something he
’d missed after discovering that his friends back home were too interested
in their own lives to care anything about his new one. Jay had also made
his transition into a new school easer to tolerate, not to mention the eve
nts surrounding last summer had built an odd, but strong bond between them
. Over the last year, Frank had even helped him coordinate a second funera
l for Odetta Grover, where Jay was finally able to make certain everyone k
new the mystery surrounding her death. The small town had been surprisingl
y accommodating, placing a memorial on the land Odetta had once lived on,
right where the Seabergs’ last house had once stood.
Frank had found that he liked Jenny, too. He’d been a little concerned when
his mother had been less than enthusiastic about the idea of taking Oliver
in, and he’d even admit to being annoyed when Jenny’s family was quick to
offer Oliver a home. But, Frank had to admit that it had worked out for the
best. The Woodmoores had been able to provide things that Frank’s couldn’t
. Like a stable roof over Oliver’s head to begin with. The Seabergs had bee
n in and out of tents, neighbors’ houses, and even an old cabin behind Mr.
Dron’s house for over a month before they found a more permanent residence
that qualified as suitable. Frank wouldn’t have wanted that ordeal for Oliv
er on top of everything else.
And Jenny’s family had also been able to provide Oliver with something tha
t Frank would have had a hard time giving. Independence. It had been no sm
ooth adjustment when the state had taken David. Oliver had been devastated
, and Frank’s instinct was to never allow him to feel like he was alone. B
ut, Frank’s own anger over David having to leave had turned his support fo
r Oliver into something that managed to seem overbearing. He’d hardly want
ed Oliver to speak with anyone else unless he was present. It was the Wood
moores who’d shown him that Oliver was stronger than that. He’d settled in
with a family who’d been able to support him and reintroduce him to socie
ty. He was going to church, and school, and he’d even taken a part-time jo
b where Jenny worked, something that had been his idea.
But, even though Frank was no longer Oliver Martin’s only friend, there wer
e still things that he only shared with Frank. It was only on occasion that
Oliver mentioned his parents. He’d once asked Frank if it was wrong to be
sad about what had happened to them, since no one else seemed to have a goo
d thing to say about his mother or his father; and only Frank knew that Oli
ver stalked the old women after church, listening to their rumors regarding
his family only to mull over it over later, hiding his hurt behind a crook
ed smile when he saw those same ladies around town. But the hardest for Oli
ver, and Frank thought for himself, too, had been David’s absence. He’d bee
n gone for almost a year. At first they’d been told that there was a chance
David would be charged with murdering his father, but with all witnesses i
nsisting that there was some sort of self-defense involved, the notion was
soon dismissed. But even then, David’s troubles were just beginning, and no
one had been able to do anything about it when it was decided that he’d be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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