No new clues concerning Zach's origins surfaced over the next two weeks, but Craig and Kara made plenty of discoveries concerning their son himself. For one, the boy loved French fries. Derek and Shanice took the Flemings out for dinner at their family's favorite restaurant—McDonald's—and after devouring his own fries, Zach helped Kara finish hers and then ate the bits that Douglas and Shauna, Derek and Shanice's kids, offered him. The three kids teased and laughed through the entire meal as the adults carried on their own conversations.
"Can't we go to their house for a while?" Zach grumbled when, after two hours there, it was time to leave. Kara took that as a good sign. He made new friends easily, at least with them.
She offered Zach a full row of precious garden space to plant some vegetables of his own the next day, and he accepted the offer with gusto, placing corn, pumpkin, squash, and sweet pea seeds in the dirt precisely as she instructed. He was thrilled when the first peas began to sprout a few days later, then the first of the pumpkins shortly after that. He checked his plants for weeds daily, usually staining his new jeans with dirt in the process. Kara rapidly developed a knack for getting the dirt out; oddly, she had never developed quite the same knack when cleaning Craig's work clothes.
Seeing how much the boy enjoyed planting—an inherited trait, to be sure—Kara took him to work with her on one of the rare Saturdays when Grover called her to duty. The boy was thrilled, though he had little idea what to expect. Kara put him to work helping her repot flowers, and within half an hour his hands, arms, and torso were covered in potting soil.
"That's how all my employees should look!" Grover barked at Kara when he saw Zach. "Makes you look like you've been doing something!"
Zach seemed uncertain how to take Grover's gruff facade at first. But Grover soon won him over: he called the boy away from Kara to wade barefooted into the nursery's koi pond to fetch some hard-to-reach water plants for a customer. The boy waded in up to his knees, caught them in a net, and brought them back undamaged, and Grover declared him a hero. From that moment, Grover and Zach were inseparable until Craig arrived to pick up the boy for their game that afternoon.
"I hit the ball, Mom!" Zach exclaimed when Kara came home from work that evening. Craig stood by, shaking his head in good humor as Zach went on. "First I struck out, and then I walked, and then I struck out again, and then I hit the ball!"
"Wow, you got to play the whole game?" Kara asked, glancing at Craig, who shrugged. Zach's leg wasn't swollen anymore, but he still had a bruise where the ball had hit him, and Kara was concerned that he not reinjure it.
"Yeah, Mom, and the pitcher threw me a perfect pitch"—Craig, out of Zach's line of sight, stretched out a flat hand a few inches higher than Zach's head—"and I hit it really hard, to the first baseman. He only barely got me out. I hit it, Mom!"
"He did," Craig confirmed, still shaking his head fondly.
"Way to go, Zach," Kara applauded him. "I'm proud of you." She would talk to Craig about being cautious with Zach's leg later.
The following Saturday, they took Zach on his first trip to the zoo. The first animal they spotted upon entering was a giraffe sixteen feet tall, striding in stately fashion. Zach's jaw dropped at the sight. "Dad, look!" he said, making sure Craig wasn't missing it. "It's so huge!" He was mesmerized by it, and was equally fascinated by the elephants, orangutans, insects, and even the sheep, pigs, and chickens in the farm exhibit. All of it was new and astonishing to Zach. He had never seen such creatures in person before. He marveled at them all and was still full of energy when they left at closing time.
He had so much energy, in fact, that Craig suggested they take Zach to his first movie. The boy was heartily in favor of the idea, so against Kara's better judgment they stopped at a downtown theater and purchased tickets to a new film, throwing in a tub of popcorn to fill out the experience.
By the time they left the theater it was after ten o'clock and Zach was finally worn out. He staggered to the car, eyelids drooping; Craig wrapped an arm around his shoulders to steady him. To Kara's surprise, though, he didn't fall asleep during the fifteen-minute drive home. He chattered about the movie the whole way. He only stopped talking when Kara finally tucked him into bed and bade him good night; she thought he might have been asleep even before she turned out the light.
Zach was definitely blurry-eyed at church the next day. He tried to pay attention to Ben's sermon about a young man named Eutychus, but sitting still on the pew was too much for his weary body to take. He suddenly slumped over, asleep, his head dropping onto Craig's shoulder. Craig and Kara shared a grin, and then gasped together as Zach abruptly slipped off the pew and hit the floor, snapping himself awake. He climbed back to his seat beside Craig, embarrassed, then leaned over against his dad and fell asleep again.
"No more movies on Saturday night," Kara reprimanded both him and Craig sternly the moment church let out. They took extra care to get Zach in bed by nine that evening.
That week was Zach's last week of school. On his final day, Kara arrived for the concluding hour of class, providing chocolate ice cream as Zach's share of the end-of-school party snacks. Thankfully, Ms. Faber was too busy to question her about Zach's background again, so Kara chatted with other parents as Zach cleaned out his desk and said his goodbyes. She met Cayden's mother, a short, sensible woman with long, dark hair, who looked nothing like her son because, as it turned out, Cayden was adopted. The woman kindly repeated Cayden's invitation to have Zach over to their house whenever it might be convenient. They lived only a block away, so Kara hesitantly agreed that he could go for a short visit the next day, there being no school. She was anxious about letting him out of her sight, but what could she do? She dared not try to explain how recently he had come to her and Craig.
Eddie, just showing up for his after-school shift, spotted Zach as they were about to leave for home. "Hey kid, have a great summer!" he called.
"You too, Mr. Eddie," Zach replied. "Can you come to more of my games?"
"I can try. You gonna hit a home run for me this season? 'Cause if you are, I want to be there to see it."
"Sure, okay," Zach laughed. "Maybe two home runs!"
Off he went then, oblivious to what Kara thought was a truly compassionate look from Eddie. She took a moment to shake the young man's hand. "He's going to miss you this summer, I think."
"Nah." Eddie looked down at the floor. "He'll be too busy having his best summer ever—with you and your husband, I mean. The nannies—they didn't do much for him, you know, not for the last two or three years. From what he's told me." He lifted his eyes to meet Kara's meekly. "I don't mean to be rude."
Kara blinked at him. Did he think he had offended her by critiquing the nannies? Of course—he assumed she and Craig had hired them. "No, that's okay. Craig and I might have our best summer ever, too." She swallowed, suddenly understanding why Zach liked Eddie so much. The young man's concern for the boy was so genuine. "I hope you'll come to another game sometime," Kara encouraged Eddie. "It would mean a lot to Zach."
Eddie nodded. "I will."
*****
The Boy Who Appeared from the Rain Page 49