Keller and Callahan

Chapter 1

Sam awoke to the stale scent of booze and tobacco. Which wasn’t too much of a surprise. He was used to it. Because the house was quiet, as it so often was in the morning, with his parents sleeping off a night of binge drinking, Sam decided the coast was clear for him to leave his room. He dressed quickly, picking up an old pair of jeans off the floor and threw on the first ratty t-shirt he could find. He knew they weren’t clean because his mother hadn’t done laundry in weeks.

The last time his clothes hadn’t been washed in that long, he attempted to operate the washing machine himself. Unsure about the amount of detergent to use, he poured in a few capfuls (or maybe ten), which resulted in the machine flooding the small mudroom with bubbles and soap. Following a severe scolding and punishment from his father for the mess, Sam was ordered to mop up the floor and discard all his soapy wet clothes in the trash as a lesson. That was the last time Sam ever attempted to do his own laundry. Now he re-wore dirty clothes until his mother sobered up long enough to do a load of wash.

After pulling on his one pair of sneakers, he trudged out into the hallway toward the kitchen. He poured himself a bowl of stale Cheerios and after noticing the milk had gone sour, decided to eat them dry. He only had a few bites remaining when he heard stirring from the back bedroom. Not wanting to risk a confrontation, he tossed his bowl and spoon into the sink, grabbed his backpack, and snuck out the back door. Since it was too early for the morning school rush, he took a deep breath and enjoyed the silence of being out in the crisp, fresh air all alone.

One of the only things he loved about his life was the place he lived. He had never lived anywhere else, but he knew nowhere could compare to the calming forest. Somehow, being surrounded by hundreds of trees anywhere he went helped him feel less alone. Being among the comfort of the ginormous woods seemed to help his problems seem small.

He loved the quiet, a staunch contrast to the constant shouting that happened when both his parents were home at the house. Even when his parents weren’t home, which was often, due to his father being in and out of jail, and his mother staying god knows where with god knows who - claiming she couldn’t bear to be in bed alone. But at home, Sam despised the silence in the house. It was just a sad reminder that homes should be noisy, full of laughter; with talks about homework and school, but where Sam lived wasn’t a home, it was simply four walls and a dilapidated roof.

But somehow, the quiet of the forest brought him peace, instead of fear. The only noise he heard now was the red pickup truck as it drove smoothly past him, leaving a rumbling of a motor in its wake. Seeing the passenger’s blonde head turn to look at him as it passed, he thought how nice it must be to have a parent take time out of their morning to make sure you got to school on time, and to care that you got there safely. Some kids were just luckier than others, he guessed.

As Sam walked along the train tracks toward school, he remembered they had a spelling test today that he had purposefully forgotten about. As a ten year old fifth grader, he felt he had more important things to worry about than a stupid spelling test. Like if there would be dinner on the table later that night - doubtful. If his father was getting out of jail soon - who knew? Or if the CPS people would come back - it was only a matter of time.

As those thoughts floated through his mind, he decided he had some time to kill, so he would stop into the little gas station on the corner. Maybe he could be sneaky enough to lift a pack of those powdered donuts he liked so much. Even though the thought of stealing made him want to throw up, a kid had to eat, right? He could save some for his lunch, which consisted of a mealy apple in a gross brown paper bag.

He moseyed toward the convenience store, when he noticed the red pickup that passed him earlier on the road was in the lot. Realizing his likelihood of lifting the donuts had decreased, his shoulders hunched in defeat. Resigned to the fact that he would be hungry all day, he walked into the store dejected. He turned left down the aisle that held the glorious junk food and was instantly drawn in.

He was so engrossed with all of the options, he forgot that he was supposed to be invisible if he wanted to try to swipe something to have for later. As he was perusing the options, a tingling sensation ran down his spine, he suddenly realized there was a pair of eyes on him. His head shot up as he locked gazes with the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen.

Did I really just think that her eyes were beautiful? What is wrong with me?

Her captivating blue eyes immediately caught his attention, accompanied by her warm and inviting smile that instantly warmed a piece inside of him and put him at ease. Her golden blonde hair was neatly braided down her back, and her slightly scuffed shoes hinted that she spent plenty hours playing out in the sun. Suddenly snapping back to reality, his cheeks flushed a shade of crimson and he coughed to try to distract himself from the embarrassment.

“What are you looking at?” He gave her the side eye.

“Powdered donuts are my favorite too,” she said sweetly without hesitation.

The clench in Sam’s belly loosened a fraction before tossing them back onto the shelf. She didn’t seem to be judging him, her eyes told him that she was joyfully trying to make a connection with him. She seemed to carry herself with such a lightness that he was envious of, someone that didn’t have to worry where their next meal was coming from, and probably had clean, fresh pajamas to wear to bed every night. Such a life was something that he was a stranger to, and he probably always would be. Shaking off his feelings of jealousy, he decided to pretend it didn’t bother him.

“You can have them. Enjoy,” he called over his shoulder as he strolled out of the gas station. Well, guess that meant he was back to taking strategic bites out of his disgusting apple at lunch time.

He continued to walk along the road until he came upon the school. He didn’t particularly like school, but he didn’t find himself hating it every day like he overheard some of his classmates say. For him, school was a reprieve from the harsh realities that he knew awaited him when he got home in the afternoons. At school, he could fade into the background, not be noticed or bothered, which was a far cry from his dad yelling and screaming at him when he was home.In the stretches when his dad was out of jail, that is. He looked at school like it was an escape, so what if he had to learn how to add fractions or write about the books that he was reading, at least at school he wasn’t getting yelled at.

He would call that a win.

Later that day, he walked into the cafeteria - finding a table alone had become an every day game for Sam. Almost like the game he played trying to hide the fact he re-wore his dirty clothes often, but honestly, it wasn’t a hard game to play because nobody really cared to notice anyway. As he clutched his mealy apple bag, his eyes searched the cafeteria for an empty table. He was a little late for lunch today because Mrs. Eller had him stay behind to ask him a question about Johnny’s missing pocket watch. It wasn’t a surprise she would suspect him, given who his dad was, but Sam had learned not to take it personally.

He was just about to give up and go eat lunch in a bathroom stall, when he saw a hand go up and wave in his direction. He looked around and everyone else was already sitting and eating. The arm continued to wave and he realized she was looking right at him.

Blue Eyes.

He must have looked like a complete dummy just standing in the middle of the cafeteria, but before he even realized it, his feet were walking towards the waving hand.

What am I doing?

Every day, Sam actively avoided eating lunch with anyone in hopes to go unnoticed.

Why am I purposely walking towards a table full of chatting kids?

It was almost as if something was pulling him towards the girl with the blue eyes against his will, like a magnet. Almost on autopilot, he slipped into the empty seat beside the girl who belonged to the blue eyes.

“Hi,” the girl said simply.

When he looked up at the face belonging to the waving hand, he was hit with the same gut punch he felt in the gas station that morning. Realizing he was captivated by the girl with the striking blue eyes, he made an effort to focus on her words.

“My name’s Olivia.” No longer Blue Eyes. Olivia.

“Sam.” Unable to tear his eyes away from hers.

“You’re in Mrs. Eller’s class, right?” She began to unzip her hot pink, Barbie lunch box.

“Yeah.”

“She’s super nice. I really wanted to get her as my teacher this year. Instead I got Mr. Johnson. He’s so boring.” Pausing as if she were extremely disappointed in herself, she regained her composure. “Oh my gosh. Please don’t tell anyone I said that, I wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings.” She said genuinely, as she started to empty the contents of her lunchbox.

Looking down in embarrassment at his scrunched brown paper bag, feeling his stomach rumble with hunger, his thoughts were interrupted by the thud of something on the table in front of him.

His eyes glanced down to find the source of the sound and sitting right in front of him was a pack of powdered donuts. A laugh escaped his mouth before he could reign it in, as he looked at Olivia over his shoulder. Her eyes sparkled with mischief and she shrugged her shoulders so nonchalantly, Sam almost missed the movement. Without directly acknowledging the donuts, she took out a full ham and cheese sandwich, and apple slices cut perfectly. She must have seen him drooling over her lunch, because without missing a beat, she turned and gave him half her sandwich and some apples. Shoving the donuts in his bag for later, he accepted the food she”d given him gratefully.

“You live over by the train station, right?” Keeping the conversation going as she took a bite of her sandwich.

“Yeah, how did you know that?” Sam tentatively reached for an apple slice. At first he felt a little awkward taking food from a stranger, but he was so hungry, he didn”t give it another thought.

“My dad told me. We saw you walking that way one day after school. He doesn’t like me to play on that side of town.”

Pinecrest was basically divided into two sections; the side of town where families had enough money to pay for their children’s sports, put them in lessons to learn an instrument, take lavish vacations. And the other side, where drugs and alcohol were never hard to find, despite the constant patrol of the police cruisers trying to keep it all under control. Take a guess on which side of the tracks Sam lived.

“Yeah, he’s not wrong. It’s a little rough,” he slowly took a bite out of the sandwich.Trying to conceal how hungry he was, his plan to eat it slowly evaporated once the first bite touched his lips. He scarfed down the remaining half in two huge bites, not remembering the last time something had tasted so delicious. As he was swallowing the last bite, it occurred to him that she had only mentioned her dad, not her mother, so he decided to file that nugget of information in the back of his mind for later.

“Is your dad still in jail?” Her question took him aback in surprise but feeling an odd and instant kinship with Olivia, he felt the desire to be honest instead of ashamed.

“Yeah, he should be getting out soon though,” he reached for another slice of apple.

“What did he do?” No fear shown in her eyes.

“Robbery this time.” He said, meeting her stare.

She sat quietly for a minute as she finished her half of the sandwich, not seeming to address the ‘this time.’ But it wasn’t an awkward quiet, Sam didn’t get the feeling that she was afraid of that notion like most of the other kids at school were. The lunch ladies began making their rounds around the tables to tell everyone to finish up, and thanks to Olivia, it felt so good to have decent food in his stomach.

“Here, take my pudding cup.” She offered it to him without hesitation.

“Oh no, it’s ok,” he scrambled in response.

“Really, I want you to have it. Vanilla’s my favorite anyway.” Sam looked at her, trying to figure out if that was the truth and not a big deal, or if this sweet ten year old girl had noticed him salivating over her unopened chocolate pudding cup the entire lunch period. Oddly touched, he took it and whispered a thank you under his breath as she finished packing up her lunch box and headed out to recess.

He scarfed the pudding down as fast as he could while walking out to the playground, still in disbelief over what just transpired in the lunchroom. When he got to the edge of the yard, his eyes were instantly drawn to Olivia sitting on one of the two swings, once again waving him over. A smile crept up to his lips, and without thinking he made his way over to her.

“So who do you live with when your dad is in jail?” she asked him as he sat down on the swing next to her.

“Umm, my mom is there sometimes, but she doesn’t like to stay there without my dad, so she comes and goes. So I’m usually by myself until he comes home,” he answered without any of the shame or apprehension that normally came when talking to other people about his situation. Unsure if it was because he hasn”t talked to anyone in weeks, or if it was because it was her. She had the ability to make things seem much more simple than they actually were, and that she wasn’t judging him for the choices his parents had made.

“Who cooks for you? Who goes grocery shopping? Don’t you get scared at night being home all by yourself?” The questions were coming a mile a minute but he didn’t care. This was the first time in the longest while that anyone had shown any interest in him at all. It felt so easy to talk to her. As easy as breathing. And rather than trying to get out of the social situation as fast as he could like he normally did, Sam found himself wanting to tell her, to be honest with her.

“Umm, I do, I guess. Our freezer was stuffed with those TV dinner things, they’re pretty easy to heat up in the microwave, and they’re not that bad.” He didn’t tell her that the freezer stash was running dangerously low, Sam holding onto the hope that one of his parents would be back before they ran out.

“What about being scared at night?” She asked again.

“Well, I just leave some lights on. And the train runs right by my house all night long, so it reminds me that I’m not the only one awake. That there are workers up and driving the trains, it makes me feel a little less alone.” He had never admitted that out loud to anyone before.

There was a small silence, and after a minute, Sam looked up at her, and saw her looking back at him. And at that moment, he saw her. Really saw her. He felt like he could see straight through her blue eyes down to her heart. The depth in them seemed to show Sam everything he needed to know about Olivia. That even at just ten years old, she was as deep as an ocean when it came to her empathy. In the short window they had spent together at lunch, Sam could feel that she genuinely cared about him, this grubby classmate of hers, for no other reason than it was the kind thing to do. He decided right then and there, in that moment barely moving on the swings on the school playground, that he was going to protect this girl and safeguard her heart before everything else.

He had never in his life had another purpose other than survival; surviving through the long stretches of time when his dad was in jail, surviving through the school day hoping no one would notice his dirty clothes and make fun of him, but most of all, surviving through the idea that he wasn’t worth it enough for his dad to stop breaking the law and for his mom to have left him for days at a time. But now, now, he was going to make sure this sweet, blue eyed little girl would never feel any of the pain and shame that he had felt during his life.

One of Olivia’s favorite things about the afternoon’s drive home was watching the lake sparkle from out the window. Every day she took the same route home, through the winding roads through the towering trees that surrounded the entirety of the lake. Even on her roughest days, she could find peace in knowing this is where she got to call home.

Her family had owned and operated the campground on the lake for generations, and now her father was in charge. Olivia could not wait until she was old enough for it to be her turn. Creating a safe haven for other kids and families, like the one she lives in every day, she couldn’t imagine a more rewarding job than that.

“How was school today, Livvy Girl?” Her dad asked from the front seat of the truck.

“It was good. Our class did a good job today so Mr. Johnson let us have ten minutes of extra recess before school got out,” she responded, still looking out the window.

“Oh that’s fun,” Ray replied as he turned onto the long road that would lead them home. As he did that, Olivia noticed a boy carrying a worn out backpack, walking the opposite way, and immediately realized it was Sam. Her heart broke at the way his shoulders slouched just a bit forward, the way his head followed and hung just a bit low. She had never seen this side of him at school. At school he put up such a strong front. Sam probably didn’t know it, but Olivia had noticed him a long time ago and had studied him on occasion. Wondering why he was always by himself, why he never played with anyone on the playground. But he always had his shoulders back in a way that said he could handle things on his own, and if anyone had tried to mess with him they would be sorry.

But right now, when no one was looking, his guard was down. He walked slowly, showing no urgency to reach home, merely moving forward because his feet were in motion. She couldn’t imagine that. The feeling of not wanting to go home, the one place that you are supposed to feel safe and comforted. The thought that anyone, but Sam especially, didn’t have that sanctuary, broke her heart in more ways than one. When he ate lunch with her that afternoon, he was really open and seemed to crave companionship without it being obvious. But watching his slumped figure slowly walk down the road, made it clear to Olivia that he did a better job of hiding his pain than he wanted to let on.

“Livvy!” Her dad’s voice broke her out of her thoughts and back to the car.

“Sorry, what?” She shifted her gaze from the trees outside to face her father.

“Thank you, welcome back to Earth. I was just reminding you that when we get home, we need to work down at the Rec Center. I’m getting it ready for Opening Day and need some extra hands, ok?” He turned the wheel to guide the truck down the final stretch towards home.

“Ok Dad,” she responded, half listening, half focused on the seemingly sad boy who was essentially walking to nowhere. Alone.

The family campground had been around for decades, and had undergone significant changes since her father assumed ownership. The first notable update was the dock shop. Initially, the on-site store was no more than a simple shack when the grounds first opened. While it had stocked essential items and fishing gear, anything beyond that required an eight-mile drive to the town’s larger grocery store. But the new dock shop her father had built was easily three times the size and had everything a family would need during their stay. From the basic necessities like milk and eggs, to ice cream treats for the kids and Olivia’s personal favorite, the magical dust that transformed campfire flames from ordinary orange to stunning blues and greens.

Ray’s most treasured achievement, besides his daughter of course, was undoubtedly the Rec Center. He had built it from the ground up with his bare hands, and it had instantly become a crowd favorite among families visiting the lodge. Central to the entire property, it stood amidst the cabins and campsites, serving as the hub for all the guests who vacationed at the lodge and was the gathering place for the planned activities, games, and crafts put on by the camp staff. Featuring a small pavilion on the side of the building, the Rec Center hosted movie nights under the twinkling night sky, thanks to the retractable projector and screen.

Whenever Olivia passed by and heard families enjoying themselves inside, she couldn”t help but feel immense pride in her father for creating a space where countless families could forge lifelong memories together. Not a day went by that she didn’t feel thankful to be part of something so special and larger than herself.

“So whaddya say you help me hang these flags across the entryway so we can show the guests that the Keller Family is ready to kick off the summer with a bang!” Her father tossed a strand in her direction.

“Sure Dad!” She climbed up the ladder that was already set up and held one side steady while Ray worked the staple gun on the other end. After a few minutes without Olivia’s usual chatter, he tossed a look over to his daughter, and observed her a little more closely and saw the faint strain she always got between her eyes when she was deep in thought.

“Alright Livvy Girl. While I have you trapped on that ladder without a quick escape route, want to tell me whatcha got on your mind?”

Smiling shyly under her lashes, she loved how her dad knew her so well, even though she knew she’d probably come to hate it in a few years.

“It’s just this boy from school,” she said as she inched the flags a little higher.

“A boy, huh?” He shot a staple into the wall with a little more force than the previous ones. “What about this boy from school?”

Laughing at her dad’s raised eyebrow and death grip on the staple gun, she climbed down the ladder to gather more of the flag banner. Ray knew that every parent cherished their children in their own way, but he felt that Olivia had captured more of his heart than he thought was humanly possible.

“Well, he lives over by the train tracks, you know that area, and he just seems so lonely. His dad is in jail, and his mom took off. He never has any lunch and I don’t think I’ve seen him talk to any other student since third grade.” She let a long breath whoosh from her lungs as she let the weight of worrisome thoughts of Sam blow away with the afternoon breeze.

“Oh Livvy, you’ve always had a heart for others ever since you watched that dang horse fall over the cliff in that Tangled movie.” Ray could remember watching Disney movies with his little girl and being amazed at how she had processed emotions so young, knowing it was going to be her special gift as she grew older.

“Maximus fell over the cliff with Flynn Rider on top of him! They both could have been hurt!” She said matter of factly as she looped another flag around a hook.

“Most two year old’s would not have latched onto that point,” he took his hat off his head and swiped at the sweat on his brow. “But anyway, wow. That sounds like a lot for a young boy to deal with. He’s in your grade?”

“Yes. We have different teachers this year, but we’ve pretty much grown up together even though we’ve never been friends. I saw him in the gas station this morning when we stopped for your coffee, and I invited him to sit with me at lunch. I just feel so bad for him and I don’t think there is anything I can do.” The look of concern on his daughters’ face made Ray’s heart soften for the boy he didn’t even know.

“Well it sounds like you sitting with him at lunch probably helped more than you think it did if he told you all of that over a ham and cheese sandwich.” Ray said softly.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Looking down at her feet, she couldn’t help but feel as if she wanted to do anything she could to help him.

“If there is one thing I know about you, Livvy Girl, it’s that you have a special ability to see people for who they really areand I know this situation isn’t any different.” He looked at his daughter with sincerity. “Now, what do you say we finish hanging these banners and go sneak a cookie before dinner?” He shot a grin over his shoulder at his daughter.

“Deal.”