New Beginning 1003

The day my mother sat us down and told us Dad had gone to live with a new family, I thought it was one of those things adults say when they don't want to deal with the truth. Not 'Your dad's dead' but 'Your dad's gone to live in the country where he can have lots of room to run about.'

It was exactly like that when Sam died.

For days, we'd sit on the stairs after school, me and my little brother, him snuggled up to me with his thumb in his mouth, and one dog above us and one below, and Mum'd answer the door and tell everyone and anyone that she couldn't deal with the paper bill or a letter that needed to be signed for or a complaint about where the car was parked, because her husband had left her.

Funny how angry I'd get. Hadn't he left us, too? Me and my brother and even the dogs.

But whatever way you looked at it, Dad was gone, gone beyond recall, and whether you had a funeral or waved at aeroplanes flying overhead in case they were going to Australia, where there was lots of room to run about, didn't matter. Didn't matter because it didn't change anything.

* * *

Derek emerged naked from the tepee and ruffled Sam's neck before they launched off across the meadow to chase butterflies and roll in the grass. This was freedom like he'd never known: no bills, no letters to sign for, no worries about where to park the car. He wished he'd made this move years ago. Only one thing worried him, niggling at the back of his mind: What on Earth would Brenda have told the kids?


Opening: BuffySquirrel.....Continuation: anon.