Promise (18 page)

When Kaden and Emmett came in, Gram was on the couch and Dad was sitting in the easy chair. The chair Gram usually sat in. Dad watched them enter but he didn't get up.

“Howdy, Dennis,” Emmett spoke first. His voice wasn't friendly, but it wasn't unfriendly either. Kaden noticed Emmett didn't step up to Dad or put out his hand.

“Emmett,” Dad said, “been a long time.” His voice wasn't overly friendly either, nor did he put out his hand.

Gram had not said a word, but now she spoke up. “Dennis, I taught you to stand when an elder enters the room. And take your hat off in the house.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Dad said in a sarcastic tone. He removed
his hat and slowly stood up. He gave Emmett a look that reminded Kaden of the looks he got from Luke.

Saying no more to Emmett, Dad turned to Kaden and with a much more pleasant voice said, “And you must be Kaden.”

“Yes, sir,” Kaden said.

“What's this sir stuff?” Dad said curtly. Kaden looked at the floor.

“The boy's been raised to be polite to strangers,” Emmett said. His tone had not sweetened.

“Strangers, bull,” Dad said. He turned to Kaden, his voice sweet again, but the tone of voice didn't match his words. “I'm not a stranger, son. I'm your dad. I know you already know that. I also know you saw me at the tower and didn't answer me.”

This wasn't what Kaden imagined meeting his dad would be like. For years, he had imagined his dad running and picking him up, swinging him around and around, saying how much he missed him. For years, Kaden thought he knew what it would be like when Dad got out of prison. And until the last letter arrived three weeks ago, Kaden had looked forward to that day. Now Kaden didn't know what to say. He stood there, staring at the floor.

Gram stood up, taking Kaden off the hook. “We've all
been reunited now, so enough. Let's have dinner.”

Emmett turned to leave but before he got the screen door opened, Gram said, “Emmett, you're staying. Kaden, go wash up.”

Kaden rushed out the door, relieved to have a chance to get away. When he got in his cabin, he looked under his mattress. The photo album was still there. He looked at the picture again. In it Dad was smiling. Dad looked like he liked him.
Maybe Dad is just as nervous about our reintroduction as I am
, he thought.

Kaden could hear Gram through the intercom telling Emmett and Dad to behave themselves, that they were acting like a couple of strutting roosters. He heard the porch door slam shut and through his open window he heard the creak of the glider. He wished he could see who was sitting on the porch.

Through the intercom came the sound of pots and pans. That would be Gram. At the same time, there was the sound of the silverware drawer being opened and the chink of knives and forks. Someone was helping Gram. It could be either Emmett or Dad. Nobody said a word, so he couldn't tell which, but he knew there was only one person on the porch. He wished he had Yo-Yo's periscope.

Keeping his ears tuned, hoping to hear voices over the
intercom, Kaden washed his hands and face and changed out of his sweaty T-shirt. He paused at his desk but heard only sounds of dinner being prepared.
I've got to come out sometime
, he told himself. Hoping it was Emmett on the porch, he stepped out. It wasn't Emmett. It was Dad.

“Come on over here and sit down,” Dad said. His voice no longer sounded sarcastic. “We can get to know each other a little before dinner. Did you find the presents I gave you?”

“Yes, thank you,” Kaden said politely, but as he sat on the porch steps, anger started rising up in him. He could feel his body tense up thinking about why his father was giving him presents now. He never had before, at least not that he could remember. For eight years, he had never gotten anything from his father, not a letter, not a card, certainly not a present. All letters that came from Chapston City State Correctional Center had been addressed to Gram. Since Gram never let Kaden read any of them, he didn't know what they said, but no letters ever showed up around his birthday. Christmas cards arrived every year but they too were addressed to Gram, and Dad never wrote anything in them. He just signed them and they were always signed Dennis, not Dad. Kaden often wondered whether his father even remembered he lived with Gram. Or if his father even remembered he existed. And now he wondered if the stranger called Dad, who was sitting there
in the glider as if he'd been there all along, thought the recent gifts would make up for the past.

“Why didn't you ever write me?” Kaden asked, not looking at his father.

Kaden said nothing more. Dad was silent also. Kaden could feel his father's eyes looking at him. Finally, Dad broke the silence.

“I know I haven't been a father to you and you have a right to be angry,” he said. “I was wrong and I want to make it up to you now.”

Kaden sat there. He didn't know what to think. He thought it'd be simple to just forgive and forget but it wasn't. Kaden felt like shouting. At the same time, he wanted to cry. He also wanted Gram or Emmett, or even the stranger called Dad, to give him a hug. But none of that happened. He stood up, not saying a word, and walked back to his cabin. Without turning on the light, he lay down on his bed.

Kaden heard Gram's screen door open and close again. Then Dad's voice came through the intercom.

“What's his problem?” Dad said. “He won't even talk to me.”

“You can't come waltzing into his life and expect him to be your long-lost buddy,” Gram answered.

“A boy should respect his father,” Dad said. “I was trying to be nice and he got up and walked away.”

“You've done nothing for him to respect,” Emmett said. “You're just a stranger to him and you can't deny it.”

Kaden knew Gram and Emmett were both aware he would be listening. It surprised him because they usually turned off the intercom or went to the garden to talk. Kaden also wondered if Dad knew about the intercom system. It didn't sound like he did.

“I'm not a stranger,” Dad stated forcefully. “I know all sorts of stuff about him. I had all his pictures taped to my wall. I know he likes to fish, he helps you in the garden and Emmett in the shop, he goes to the fire tower. He does all the stuff I used to do when we came here in the summer.”

“You only know that because I told you about him and sent you his school pictures,” Gram stated. “What did you ever send him?”

“I wasn't exactly some place where I could go shopping, you know.”

“I don't mean things. You could have written to him,” Gram said. “You may think you know him, but you don't. And he knows nothing about you.”

“I sent letters every so often,” Dad said.

“You sent
me
letters,” Gram said, “not Kaden. And they were all about you. Complaining about the food, complaining about the work, complaining about everything. You never
once asked about your son.”

“I figured you'd tell him about me,” Dad said.

“Well, you figured wrong,” Gram said. “It was your decision to stay out of his life. If you want to be his father now, you'll have to prove yourself to Kaden, not the other way around. Now eat some dinner and lock the door behind you. I'm going to bed.”

“I'm not hungry,” Dad retorted.

Kaden heard Gram's bedroom door close. At the same time, the screen door opened and slammed shut. He wondered why Gram said to lock the door. Gram never locked the door. Footsteps went down the porch steps and turned toward Kaden's cabin. Kaden climbed out of bed, quietly shut the solid wooden door, and locked it. Back on the bed, he heard the footsteps stop halfway between Cabins Three and Two. Then he heard them again. But this time, they turned away from Kaden's cabin and walked the other direction. Kaden gave a sigh of relief. If that was Dad, he was glad he didn't come talk with him.

Kaden lay on his bed, listening. Quiet sounds of dishes clinking together, the refrigerator opening and closing, and water running and then stopping came through the intercom. Then, surprisingly, the calming notes of a cello and Gram's heavy wooden front door clicking shut. Through
his open window Kaden heard the sound of Gram's screen door closing. The creak of the porch stairs and footsteps across the gravel to his cabin. The sound of something being set outside Kaden's closed door. Footsteps retreating across gravel. Emmett's truck door squeaking open, slamming shut. The motor turning on and the truck pulling out of the drive.

Kaden got out of bed and opened his door. There was a plate of food and a glass of milk.

Sunday, September 11

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

LIKE A NORMAL FAMILY

When Kaden awoke, he listened attentively to the sounds both over the intercom and through the window. It sounded like any Sunday morning. Gram was in the kitchen. Only the sound of birds came from outside. Kaden opened the cabin door. He cautiously stuck his head out. Nobody was in sight. But the white truck was still in front of Cabin Five.

Kaden went into the kitchen and gave Gram a hug.

“You stink. Go take a shower while I fix breakfast,” Gram said, but hugged him back.

Kaden opened the screen door, looked both ways, and hurried to his cabin to get some clean clothes. Then he rushed to Cabin Four. After his shower, Kaden peeked his head out
the door.
Still clear
, he thought, and laughed to himself. He had told Yo-Yo he watched too much TV. Kaden hardly watched any TV at all yet he felt like he was in a spy show.

“I haven't heard you practice that trumpet once,” Gram said as they finished their oatmeal. She had insisted on eating on the porch just like they always did. Kaden was glad Gram seemed back to her normal self. “If you get kicked out of band for not practicing, I'll have to make another trip to that school to get rid of the other two days of study hall.”

“I don't think Mr. Price could survive that,” Kaden said, grinning. Gram actually grinned back.

Kaden got his trumpet and came back to sit on the porch steps. He leaned against the railing, his back to Cabins Four and Five. Squeaks and squeals poured out of the brass instrument but every once in a while he hit a pure tone.

“That was a good one,” Gram stated. “Try it again.”

Kaden kept trying, hitting more and more clear notes. He figured out if he held his mouth slightly differently the note would change pitches. After about five minutes, Kaden tried pushing each of the valves down as he blew. He had all but forgotten about his dad and didn't hear him walking up the drive until he spoke.

“You sure make a racket first thing in the morning,” Dad stated. Kaden turned around. Dad was smiling as he walked
up to the porch holding a set of clothes. “I'm going to take a shower before breakfast.”

“Breakfast is over,” Gram said, “but there's coffee on the stove. And the shower is in Cabin Four now. We don't use the shower in my cabin anymore. It's a closet now.”

Dad put his clothes on one of the metal chairs, went into Gram's cabin, and returned with a piece of toast and a cup of coffee.