Chapter 14 Emotional Roller Coaster
EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER
Thaddeus
I’d have done anything to prevent my best friend from experiencing the loss of his boy.
For Wylie’s sake, Henry had tried hard. When Ashley told him she was pregnant, my friend wasted no time doing the honorable thing.
He shut the door on the life he’d always wanted to give his son: a real family.
I’d already heard Henry beating himself up extensively for ‘failing’ at making it a lifetime commitment.
He wouldn’t survive if he thought the breakup had forced Wylie to run away.
The boy had made his objection to the divorce very clear, but Henry and Ashley had hoped that in time he’d adjust. It had looked like they were right, until today.
Now he was missing, and no matter how confident I’d sounded earlier, I was losing faith.
“Shouldn’t the police have called by now with something?” Summer asked, her face pinched, and her voice tight.
I swallowed hard. Maybe. Maybe they had called, and it was bad news. In my experience, that was their specialty.
“Call Eden,” I suggested.
As Summer did what I asked, I thought about Wylie running away.
Between us all, we’d searched every inch of the town.
How did someone without a car get out of Tarrytown?
As I stood in the middle of the street, a loud horn echoed in my ears.
There was a train at the station. Images raced through my mind, darting from Wylie getting lost among the crowds of people shuffling on and off the car, to the unthinkable picture of him wandering on the tracks.
“Summer!” I said as my eyes bulged. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” she asked with the phone still held to her ear.
I didn’t waste time answering. I ran for dear life down the hill, toward the station. It wasn’t far. People walked up and down the hill every day to commute into the city for work, but right now I wished it were closer.
“Thaddeus, wait!” Summer yelled after me.
Wasting no time in looking back, I ran faster. Down the hill, my feet moved as if my life depended on it. My chest burned, and for a second, I couldn’t hear anything but the repeated train horns. I had to get there and wished my legs could keep up with the speed my mind was racing.
In a matter of minutes, I was at the station.
Chest heaving, I arrived on the platform and took a big gulp of air. Sweat stung my eyes, but I turned in circles, desperately scanning all the faces. Tall. Too old. Woman. Wrong coat. My eyes darted from one person to the next, desperate for something small, something familiar.
Where are you?
Shit! What if Wylie managed to board a train? How long before a conductor noticed the little boy traveling alone?
“You think he’s here?” Summer asked when she caught up to me, out of breath.
My throat burned from running. “I hope so . . . If he’s not, then there is a possibility the little guy jumped on one of the earlier trains.”
“Shit!” Summer said, looking stricken. “Do we tell Henry and Ashley?”
Seeing how much she cared about Wylie stirred feelings inside me. Her hair had frizzed from all the running around, which should have made her look worse.
It didn’t. As she stood there, lips pressed in a serious line, and eyes sparkling with determination, I thought she looked more beautiful than she’d ever been. “I’m not sure. What if I’m wrong and they concentrate all their energy on this, and then he was in town all along?”
As I spoke, I noticed a change in Summer’s facial expression. She didn’t have to say anything. It had been ten years since I’d seen that kind of joy and relief on her face, but by the way her eyes pricked with tears and the corners of her mouth tugged with a smile, I knew she’d seen Wylie.
Gratitude flooded my chest as I slowly turned around. I exhaled deeply when I spotted him. The bench he sat on seemed to swallow him. I’d looked in that very direction just seconds ago but hadn’t noticed him. Thank goodness Summer was here, or I might have turned around empty-handed.
“I’ll call Henry.” Eager to put my best friend at ease, I placed the phone call.
Summer kept a careful watch over Wylie. Then, together, we walked over to him, both cautious not to scare him. My stomach was in knots at the idea that if we startled him, Wylie would make a run for it. One baby step. Another even smaller step. It took forever, but eventually we stood by his side.
“Hey, bro.”
Shrunken on a bench, Wylie looked up, and a tear slipped down his cheek. Lifting a hand, I ran it through my hair as Summer instinctively lowered herself beside Wylie and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry.”
Both Wylie and I carried a look of confusion.
“Sorry. Everything has gotten so crazy the last few weeks.”
Patting Wylie’s shoulder, I nodded, wishing some deep words would come to me soon, but they didn’t.
“Divorce sucks, right?” Summer continued.
As they spoke, I watched Wylie’s small figure fidgeting. He wore his blue jacket, Star Wars backpack, and his Nike sneakers.
“I hate it,” Wylie finally said.
“Wylie, if you need me, I’m here to talk, or just hang,” Summer said.
I glanced at her curiously. Positioned next to the boy like a caring mother, she looked like the Summer I’d not seen in a long while. One that was softer and able to connect with other people’s emotions.
Admiration filled me as I watched them talk. I lagged in finding the right words to say, but Summer stood up to the task effortlessly. She talked and listened. Paused at the right cues, gently squeezing Wylie’s shoulders when she could tell he was near to tears.
Clearly unable to hold it in anymore, Wylie allowed his sobs to break through.
Poor kid. I know how it feels to see your family fall apart.
Through his tears and stammers, Summer wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulder.
I noticed she didn’t lecture but mostly listened, as if she saw it as a privilege to be allowed into his inner thoughts and have the chance to help Wylie reach a better headspace.
Man, she sure has a knack for this consoling thing.
“Mommy and Daddy are so worried about you. I know this must be hard for you. Your family is changing. But you have to remember, no matter what, we all love you. You are not alone. At Daddy’s house, or with Mommy. Little by little, things will feel the same again.”
After my mother’s death, Summer had consoled me in the same way. Her words had brought me some comfort. In truth, without them, I don’t know what I would have done. I’d hung on to them for dear life. I’d believed that as long as I had Summer, I could get through anything.
Perhaps some things were destined not to change. Beneath all the anger, the old Summer I used to love still existed.
My body tightened. Summer had been there for me even after what her dad did. Now, another question made my chest tighten. Did she have anyone to console her the same way she did for me when I killed Clive?
“I want to go home,” Wylie whispered, and I finally found my voice.
“Your parents are on the way.”
As the words fell from my lips, Ashley screeched, “Wylie!”
“Over here,” I yelled.
Together, she and Henry sprinted toward us at full speed.
Ashley scooped up her son and hugged him tightly, tears streaming from her eyes, and Henry waited his turn with trembling hands and shaky breaths.
Their lips moved about a mile a minute, but I couldn’t hear a word either said as another train pulled into the station.
The sound of the horn and the screech from the brakes were overpowering. The platform shook beneath my feet.
Summer and I stepped back to let the family reunite.
Hundreds of people exited the train, most unaware of the disaster we’d averted.
One of them was Felix, who walked right into the reunion, relief written all over his face.
“Thank God you found him. I was so worried. I had to wait for the next train to get here, and it felt like forever.”
Like a vulture, he hovered nearby as Ashley and Henry spoke to Wylie. I was just about to tell him to give them some room when Summer grabbed my arm. “Don’t.”
Don’t what?
It seemed she could read my mind. “Start a fight with Felix. He cares just as much as you do.”
Yeah, about different people, but she was right.
“I wasn’t,” I lied.
Summer raised a brow at me. “Don’t forget, I know you.”
As I replayed her words in my mind, the reunion ended. Henry held Wylie and thanked us all, while Ashley filled Felix in on what he missed.
Minutes later, I watched Henry and his broken family drive away up the hill.
I looked over at Summer, who jumped into Felix’s car, which he parked at the station daily and caught the train.
The crisis was over, so, like boxers, we returned to our assigned corners of the ring.
Tomorrow, or any day after, a bell would ring, and we’d come out swinging once again.
I shrugged and crawled my way up the hill, which hadn’t felt this difficult going down.
At the midway point, I paused, partly to regain my breath, but mostly to take a moment to marvel at the miracle that Summer and I had put our differences aside to help when it mattered. It was something at least.
I wasn’t certain what, but even I had to admit to being pleasantly surprised.