Friday, January 3, 2014

traveling news

the benefit of the doubt



Dean wasn't sure he understood. Was anyone listening to him? Everyone burst into the house as if there might be a bomb.

"Do you, know where Gage is?" Josie's voice was frantic. "Has he even been here?"

"Well, of course, he's been here." Dean looked puzzled as he was trying to retrace the holidays. "He was here Christmas morning when we opened our presents." It didn't seem out of the ordinary. No, he did not spend every waking minute with Gage. He told the policeman that Gage shared his room.

But no one seemed to be listening.

Someone raced past, upstairs.

"Who was that?" Dean winced.

"That was Halie's brother. We know she has to be with Gage. She has to be!" Josie wailed as if he was holding back.

"What?" Dean squinted hard. "No." Dean shook his head. He would know if she were here. He would know.

"Where is Gage?" The police officer looked to his Foster mom.

Dean rested his eyes on Ren, who remained poised and calm.

"He's helping out at a soup kitchen." She said very flatly. "I drove him there, myself."

"I don't believe this." Josie didn't seem fond of Ren's answer. She looked at Dean as if he were a liar. Maybe they both were.

"What do you want me to say, Josie?" Dean looked at her helpless. They'd had a heart to heart, already, over Christmas. Wasn't everyday he talked about himself.

 She'd wanted to know about him when he was little. Was he in a house fire with Gage? She all but accused him of starting it. He thought they'd cleared this up. But he wasn't so sure she'd believed anything he'd told her.

 Dean wasn't even completely dressed yet. He was just in his pale thermal shirt and jeans. "I don't know where Halie is." He looked up to see Halie's brother on the stairway. Evidently, she wasn't here.

3 comments:

  1. I can see why she's stressed, but she shouldn't take it all out on Dean.

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  2. Wow, a lot of stress! I think they all need to calm down and look for them both.

    ReplyDelete