The rain didn’t soothe him. It seemed to bombard him with questions. About tomorrow and the next day and the next.

Trying to find a job, getting Mr. Sinclair to fix the roof . . .

Dad needs to know how we’re doing. Maybe he can help us out. Maybe he’ll finally get it that we can’t do this on our own.

Kids not only deserved two parents but they needed them helping and supporting all along the way.

Mom couldn’t do it all by herself. Thomas couldn’t do enough to help out.

Just go see Dad and let him know.

It was there in the sanctuary of his cold room that Thomas made the decision. Just like he decided to combat something bad with something good.

He couldn’t tell Mom, of course. But maybe then Dad would finally know how they were doing and what he’d done to them and maybe somehow things could get better. Maybe Dad would say he missed them and that he was sorry.

This’ll be my Christmas present to Mom, he thought as the droplets of rain continued to fall in his room. Maybe this will give her some kind of hope.

And maybe, just maybe, one parent could end up turning back into two.

It was a Christmas miracle he could hope for.

The Man Inside

Do the dumb things our parents do mean we’re doomed to fail just like them?

Thomas didn’t know the answer.

They make choices just like everybody else.

He sat in the woods across the street from where they had lived and had been staring at it for a couple of hours now. It was the middle of the day.

He’d managed to get this far with the help of one of Carlos’s friends at school and a truck driver. Mom would kill him if she knew he’d managed to make it all the way back to their home in Georgia. But for now she thought he was spending the day at Carlos’s house. She thought he was doing something good, building friendships and starting to fit in.

She still doesn’t know about the Facebook page. Sometime soon I’ll tell her.

Thomas couldn’t help being a little excited. He wanted to see with his own eyes. He didn’t know what exactly, but he studied the house anyway. The truck was outside. He had not seen the front door open at all.

Over the past year since leaving, Thomas had never questioned his mother on why they’d left. They all knew. The biggest question Thomas had was whether or not their leaving had changed Dad.

After Mom told them about the money that Dad had given her, Thomas wanted to believe that his father had changed.

He wanted to get just a glimpse. Just a touch. Just something.

Some things in life just didn’t add up and never would. Like why some really bad people seemed to have so much while people like his mother had nothing. Or why people like his father woke up and went to bed so angry at life. It always seemed to be guys too. He didn’t get why some guys had to be so mean. Thomas had seen it all his life, and it was always males. And it always started with his father.