The Question of the Absentee Father
Page 26
“I’m proud of you,” Ms. Washburn said. “You didn’t think you could do this but you overcame what you had to face and you dealt with it. Your possibilities are endless, Samuel.” She got into the taxicab before I could think of a response.
Mike grinned at me and said he’d see me the next morning. Mother had informed me it would be impossible for her to drive or cook breakfast for me until her knee was completely healed. Mike would not cook breakfast, but he would take me to the Questions Answered office.
“I think so,” I told him. “I do not intend to drive a car again soon.”
Mike laughed and then drove the taxicab away.
I was wary of interrupting my parents so I entered the house through the front door but I did not hear my father in the kitchen as I walked up to my attic apartment. I did hear voices coming from Mother’s bedroom as I passed and that encouraged me to hasten my step.
I assumed that constituted a successfully answered question. Mother knew where my father was now.
Lying in my own bed at last, listening to the Beatles album Revolver (the US version), I considered the experience I’d just completed. Much of it had been unpleasant and some of it—particularly the air travel—had been frightening. But Ms. Washburn was correct in pointing out that it had been completed successfully and I had met the necessary challenges, although I was convinced I’d been correct in my assessment as well: I could not have done any of it alone. That was troubling, because people other than myself have always been something of a puzzlement and a source of tension for me. They act in such irrational and unpredictable ways.
Even in my own bed, it took a while to fall asleep that night.
Mrs. Schiff had been looking in on Mother while I was away and had agreed to drop by now that I was home but would be at my office. My father said he would see to Mother’s needs if she would allow it, and I believed she would.
Mike arrived exactly on time, as he always does. We spoke very little on the way to the Questions Answered office, which was not unusual. I thanked him for the ride, he refused to accept payment, as he always does, and I opened my office door happily, glad to be back in my familiar routine.
But I was feeling nervous as the first few minutes went by. I tried to concentrate on the few questions that had been left unanswered before I left for Southern California but found my mind wandering. I was not being productive, which was very unusual.
After thirteen minutes the bell on the door to Questions Answered rang and I looked up to see Ms. Washburn enter carrying her laptop case. She walked to her desk with a welcome smile.
“Good morning, Samuel. How are your parents doing?”
I stood up and walked toward Ms. Washburn’s desk. “I have not seen them since last night,” I told her. When Ms. Washburn and I arrived at her workstation at the same time, she looked at me quizzically.
“What’s up, Samuel?”
I consciously took in a breath. “Ms. Washburn,” I said. “If it is acceptable to you, I would like to revisit the issue of kissing.”
She seemed surprised by the suggestion, but after two seconds broke into a very wide smile.
“Love to,” she said.
the end
about the author
E. J. Copperman is the author of the Haunted Guesthouse series, with more than 220,000 copies sold (so far), the Mysterious Detective series, and the Agent to the Paws series.
Jeff Cohen wrote the Aaron Tucker and Comedy Tonight mystery series. He is also the author of two nonfiction books on Asperger’s Syndrome, including The Asperger Parent.