Promise

by Judy Young

  “There you go again,” Dad said. “Just rubbing it in that I haven’t been here.”

  “I’m not trying to rub anything in,” Kaden said. “It’s just the truth. That’s what we’ve always done. Talked about our day at dinner.”

  “You haven’t been here,” Gram said, “and we’re not going to pretend you have. Nor are we going to avoid every topic of conversation you might interpret as a personal insult. So face facts and move on. You were in prison. Now you’re out. What happens from now on is up to you.”

  Dad pushed his chair from the table. “I’m going for a drive,” he said, standing up.

  “Sit back down for a second,” Gram demanded. “I have something else I want to say.”

  Dad didn’t leave but he didn’t sit back down either. He stood behind his chair, his hand resting on the chair back.

  “Getting things for Kaden is fine but there’s no need to sneak around about it. Sneaking is for when you’re doing something wrong.”

  “If you’re wondering about the phone, I didn’t steal it,” Dad said. “I bought myself a phone and I put him on my plan. I could put you on so you could have a phone, too, if you want.”

  “No, thank you,” Gram said.

  “Have it your way,” Dad said. “I was just trying to be nice.”

  “When I said no, thank you,” Gram said. “I meant just that. No, I have no need for a cell phone but thank you anyway.”

  Kaden noticed how carefully Gram had chosen her words. She wasn’t lying. She didn’t say she didn’t have a cell phone. She said she didn’t need one. And she didn’t. She already had one. But Kaden wasn’t supposed to know that and evidently Dad didn’t know Gram had one either. Kaden didn’t say a word but wondered why Gram was being sneaky about her phone. All he could think of were Yo-Yo’s words, just in case, and knew Gram still wasn’t sure about how much to trust Dad.

  Dad walked out. Gram left the cabin, too. Kaden listened through the kitchen window as he cleared the table. There was no talking. Dad started up the truck and drove away. Gram’s glider squeaked as she started muttering to herself.

  Kaden finished the dishes and stepped outside. “I’ve got homework,” he told Gram as he crossed the porch.

  “It can wait,” Gram said. “Sit down here a minute.”

  Kaden sat down on the glider beside Gram. She put her arm around his shoulders. Slowly they moved back and forth as dusk turned to night.

  “Won’t be long before it will be too cold to sit out here,” Gram said.

  “It’s only mid-September,” Kaden said. “We still have another whole week before fall officially begins.”

  “A week may seem long to you but when you get older, years seem to fly by pretty fast. It seems like just yesterday your father was your age, sitting here beside me on this glider. I do love him, you know.”

  They sat for a little longer, the glider moving rhythmically, until Gram spoke again.

  “When your grandpa died, it was hard on your dad. He felt lost and lonely and everything made him angry. Including coming up here. He and I came that first summer but we only stayed a week. Emmett tried to help. You know, be a friend, take him fishing and stuff. But your father seemed to resent Emmett was alive and his dad was dead. Your grandfather and Emmett were such very good friends, almost like brothers. And I think your dad was always a little jealous of Emmett. So your dad and I went back to Chapston City and never came back. At least not together. In high school, your dad got in with the wrong crowd and things just got worse. There wasn’t anything I did that seemed to make a difference.” Gram let out a long sigh.

  “How did Grandpa die?” Kaden asked. It was one of the things nobody ever talked about.

  “In a car wreck coming back from fishing with Emmett. Your grandfather swerved to avoid a deer, went off the road, and hit a tree. Your grandpa died but Emmett walked away without a scratch.”

  “Wow,” Kaden said. “I knew he and Grandpa were friends but Emmett never told me about that. That must have been awful for him.”

  “It was,” Gram agreed. “For everybody.”

  “Why hasn’t anyone ever told me this?”

  “I know there are a lot of things I’ve kept from you, Kaden. I just needed to wait until I thought you were ready.”

  They were both quiet for a while as the creaking of the glider mixed with the sounds of evening insects.

  “But it’s no excuse,” Gram finally said.

  “What isn’t?” Kaden asked.

  “That your father’s dad died,” Gram said. “It’s no excuse for doing wrong. Even when things are hard, you still have to be responsible and make the right decisions. For some reason, your dad didn’t think the rules applied to him just because he had a hard go of it.”

  They sat a while longer. A full moon rose, deep yellow, leaving long, crisscrossing shadows of tree branches across the yard and into the circle drive.

  “Isn’t that pretty?” Kaden said.

  “Yes, it is,” Gram said. She paused, then spoke again. “I’m proud of you, Kaden. I know it’s not easy on you but you’re making good choices and you’re being patient.”

  Gram squeezed Kaden’s shoulder and gave him a kiss on his forehead. She hadn’t done that since first grade when he wasn’t invited to Luke’s party. “Now go do your homework,” she said.

  When Kaden went into his cabin, the first thing he did was pull the photo album and notes out from under his mattress. He opened his desk drawer and put them in there. Things in a desk drawer were out of sight but it was a normal place to keep things. Under a mattress was sneaky. Then he sat down at the desk and opened his math book. He was almost done with his homework when he heard Gram open the screen door and go inside.

  “Good night, Gram,” he said.

  “Good night, Kaden.”

  Kaden heard Gram get a drink of water. Then her voice came over the intercom again. “Only one rule,” Gram said. “No calls after nine o’clock.”

  Kaden looked at his clock. It was 9:35. “Okay,” he said.

  Thursday, September 15

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  THE PLAN

  Before eating breakfast, Kaden walked past Cabin Four and looked around the corner. Dad’s truck was back but no ladder hung out over the tailgate. When the bus stopped at Emmett’s, Doris went inside but Kaden walked behind the shop. The ladder was there, smashing down the weeds.

  “Did you see Dad last night?” Kaden asked Emmett when he entered the kitchen.

  “No, why?”

  “Just curious. Thought he might have come by.”

  “I doubt your dad’s going to come around here much,” Emmett said but he didn’t say why. Kaden thought he knew the reason but didn’t say anything about what Gram told him last night either. Instead, he went over to the wall and looked closely at the pictures. There were a lot of them with Emmett and Grandpa. They were always smiling or laughing.

  When it was time to go, Kaden and Doris each grabbed a couple of doughnuts for the road and headed out the door. Emmett followed. “You and Yo-Yo still on for Saturday?”

  “Yep,” Kaden said.

  “Good. Tell Yo-Yo I’ll pick him up around nine.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Kaden said, but on the way to school he came up with a better plan.

  “Ask your mom if you can ride home on the bus with me tomorrow and spend the night. Emmett will take you home on Saturday,” Kaden told Yo-Yo as soon as he entered Ms. Ales’s room.

  “Great idea,” Yo-Yo said, dumping his backpack. He ran from the room and returned just as second bell rang.

  “She said yes,” he said, sliding into his seat.

  “Super,” Kaden said.

  “Did you tell Gram?” Yo-Yo asked. Ms. Ales rang the brass bell for silence.

  “No,” Kaden whispered over Yo-Yo’s shoulder, “I’ll tell her this afternoon, but I’m sure she won’t care. She said you were welcome anytime, remember?”

  “Not about spending the night,”
Yo-Yo said. “About the cell—”

  Before Yo-Yo was able to finish his sentence, the announcements blared and all the students rose to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Yo-Yo didn’t have a chance to ask about the phone again until lunch.

  “So did you tell or not tell, that is the question,” Yo-Yo said as they sat down with their trays.

  “Told,” Kaden said. “I don’t relish the idea of suicide. You know Gram; she wouldn’t just kill me outright, she’d work me to death.”

  “So did she get mad? Is she letting you keep it? Will you actually get to talk on it?” Yo-Yo asked without a pause between questions.

  “No, yes, and yes,” Kaden said, laughing.

  Friday, September 16

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  HOMEWORK

  When Kaden and Yo-Yo got off the bus, Kaden was relieved to see Dad’s truck wasn’t there, but that was worrisome, also. Yo-Yo wanted to go see Kubla. What if Dad is at the tower? Kaden thought. What if he gets angry again? He’s got a pretty short fuse. And Yo-Yo blurts out anything that’s going through his head. What if Yo-Yo ticks Dad off? Kaden was still pondering what to do when Gram put an end to his worries.

  “Talking about fall coming the other night got me to thinking,” Gram told the boys. “It’s time for fall cleaning, and with an extra pair of hands, it will go twice as fast. You can start by straightening up the junk cabin.”

  “We were going to go to the tower,” Kaden complained, instantly deciding he’d rather chance Yo-Yo seeing Dad get angry than having to do fall cleaning.

  “You can go tomorrow morning,” Gram said. “Emmett won’t want to start working on that wood until morning’s half over.”

  Gram listed what fall cleaning entailed. Neither boy was overjoyed to hear they’d spend the afternoon cleaning seven windows; sweeping five cabin floors plus one porch; and scrubbing five bathroom sinks, five toilets, and one bathtub.

  “Sorry,” Kaden said as they walked into Cabin One, “but if we work quickly, we may still have a chance to go to the tower before dinner.”

  “Where’s your dad?” Yo-Yo whispered.

  “Why are you whispering?” Kaden asked.

  “Intercoms,” Yo-Yo whispered again, searching the shelves with his eyes.

  “There aren’t any in here. Just in my room, so stop whispering.”

  “So where’s your dad?” Yo-Yo said again, but louder this time.

  “I don’t know. He goes to Chapston City a lot to look for work.”

  “That’s boring,” Yo-Yo said.

  “Shh!” Kaden said, looking toward the open door. “If she hears that word, we’ll have more work to do. Gram hates that word.”

  “What word?” Yo-Yo asked.

  “The B-word,” Kaden said.

  Yo-Yo thought for a moment. “You mean ‘boring’?”

  “Shhhhh, I’m serious.” But the laughter in Kaden’s voice said otherwise. Kaden handed Yo-Yo a broom and the two boys quickly cleaned the first four cabins.

  “So, the infamous Cabin Five,” Yo-Yo said as they left Cabin Four. “Have you been in it yet?”

  “Nope,” Kaden said. “Only talked to Dad through the screen door once.”

  “So we head to uncharted lands,” Yo-Yo said, but as they walked past Cabin Five’s window, Yo-Yo stopped. “Do you think he’ll mind us snooping around in his cabin?”

  “We’re not snooping; we’re cleaning,” Kaden said, although he was wondering the same thing.

  Both boys became silent as Kaden slowly turned the key Gram had given him and pushed open the door. He took one tentative step forward and stopped.

  Inside there was a bed, a desk, and a dresser. The furniture was identical to Kaden’s. A fan sat on top of the dresser, its blades spinning. The bed was not made. The top sheet was wadded up at the foot of the bed and a blanket and quilt lay in a heap on the floor. Clothes were scattered around, too.

  “I guess Gram can’t force a grown man to keep his room clean,” Kaden said, and stepped farther in. Yo-Yo followed on tiptoes, not making a peep.

  Unlike Kaden’s room, there was nothing on the walls. On the desk was a ceramic pot with thick, uneven, and wobbly sides. Its reddish-brown glaze had dripped during firing, leaving a darker, thicker line down one side. Kaden picked it up and looked inside. A few coins, an old, rusty fishing lure, and a couple of rocks with fossils in them. All dust-covered. He could feel something was scratched in the bottom. Putting his hand over the top, he turned it over. There was a date and Dad’s initials. Kaden smiled. He had made a pinch pot when he was eight, too. As Kaden turned it back over, one of the rocks fell out and landed with a thud on the wooden floor. Yo-Yo let out a yelp and sprang backward, tripping over a pair of shoes. He landed hard on the bed and the bed caved in.

  “What is your problem?” Kaden said.

  “You startled me,” Yo-Yo said. “I’m a little on edge here.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud, it was just a rock.”

  Kaden put the clay pot back on the desk and pulled Yo-Yo up.

  “Help me with the mattress,” he said. He lifted one side and Yo-Yo picked up the other and they leaned it against the desk, the top sheet sliding down on the floor. Then they picked up the box spring and leaned it against the mattress. One of the wooden slats that went across the bed frame was broken. The other slats had also fallen to the floor. Kaden picked up the broken slat and put the two pieces just outside the door.

  “Two slats will probably do until Emmett can fix that,” he said. “I’ll take it with us tomorrow.”

  The boys evenly spaced the unbroken slats on the bed frame and put the box spring and mattress back.

  Kaden pulled the bottom sheet from the mattress. “We might as well put on clean sheets,” he said. “Go get some. They’re in Cabin Four. And put these in the wash.” Kaden stuffed the sheets and some dirty clothes into Yo-Yo’s arms. “Do you know how?”

  “I have to do chores at my house, too, you know,” Yo-Yo answered as he pushed open the screen door.

  Kaden turned back to the desk. The only other things on it were a few cash register receipts. He picked one up. It was for the TV. He thought about what Luke said. The receipt would prove his dad paid for the TV with his credit card but Kaden didn’t need to prove anything to Luke. He put it back on the desk.

  The desk drawer was open just a crack. Not even enough to stick out beyond the lip of the desktop. Kaden absently pushed it closed but then thought of his own trick with the stick and the muddy spot. Maybe Dad left the drawer just barely open to see if anyone had been in his desk. Kaden opened it again, just a crack. Then, curiosity getting the best of him, he pulled it wide open.

  Inside was just the usual desk stuff. Two pens, a pencil, a few broken crayons, a pair of child’s scissors, an eraser with a hole roughly dug into the middle of it, its edges rounded from use, and a small bottle of glue, long dried out. Stuffed in the very back corner was an old black leather wallet.

  Kaden pulled it out. There was nothing in it except a card that comes with new wallets to put identification information on. Like the wallet, it was worn and creased. The ink was faded but Kaden could still see the writing on it. It said Michael Smith and had a Chapston City address.

  He must have been one of Dad’s old friends, Kaden thought. Maybe Dad invited him to come with him to the cabins when he was younger. He put it back and closed the drawer, leaving it open a bit, just as he had found it.

  Kaden turned to the dresser. There wasn’t much in it either. The top drawer had socks and underwear; the second, T-shirts; the third had a pair of shorts and a pair of jeans. Unlike the things in the desk drawer, all the clothes looked very new. Kaden had just opened the fourth drawer when a deep voice behind him said, “Get out of there!”

  Startled, Kaden jumped up and spun around. Yo-Yo stood outside the screen door, laughing.

  “Man, did you jump!” Yo-Yo said, stepping inside. “Thought you said we weren’t snooping. Find anything interesting?”
/>   “Nope.” The fourth drawer was empty and Kaden pushed it closed. “I guess Gram was right. Emmett took out the only thing of any importance.”

  “Have you searched the closet yet?” Yo-Yo asked.

  “No.”

  Yo-Yo opened the closet door. Hanging inside were three shirts, a jean jacket, and two empty hangers. Wadded up in the corner were a few more T-shirts and several pairs of underwear and socks. Kaden gathered them up and put them by the screen door. When they finished cleaning, Kaden picked up the pile of laundry to take to Cabin Four but Yo-Yo grabbed one of the T-shirts and started rubbing the closet doorknob.

  “What are you doing?” Kaden asked.

  “Fingerprints,” Yo-Yo said, holding up his hand and wiggling his fingers. “I’m erasing evidence.”

  Gram was waiting on the porch. “You guys did a good job.”

  “Thanks,” Kaden said. “Can we go to the tower for a little while?”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Gram said. “Let’s build a campfire, instead. We’ll roast hot dogs for dinner.”

  “That’d be cool,” Yo-Yo piped up.

  “We need to invite Emmett, too,” Kaden added.

  “Well, run down there and ask him,” Gram said.

  “No,” Kaden said. “I can give him a call. Remember?”

  Gram nodded. “This will be fun. We haven’t had a cookout in a long time.”

  Kaden went to his cabin and took the cell phone from his desk. “Hi, Emmett!”

  Emmett was surprised to hear Kaden’s voice. “Is everything okay?” he said right away.

  “Everything’s fine,” Kaden said. “Just asking if you want to come roast hot dogs with us?”

  “Hot diggety dogs,” Emmett whooped. “I’ll be right up. So, Gram told you about her phone, did she?”

  Kaden put his hand over the intercom before answering.

  “No, I’m using mine,” he said very quietly. “Dad gave me one yesterday. Gram hasn’t said a word about hers.”

  After Kaden hung up, he and Yo-Yo gathered sticks and branches in the woods. They had quite a pile next to the old stone fireplace when Emmett pulled in.