picking up the pieces

There was just so much to do. Macy's parents at her grandmother's was like a nightmare.

But they weren't really speaking to each other. It was just a matter of time. Macy knew this dance of their's.

They were going through the garbage. Most would be pitched.

Gage was there with his dad and his foster mom. They were here to help.

To Macy it was like being part of an allergic reaction. Nothing good could come of this.

Luckily, her mother knew Gage's foster mom Ren, from somewhere, or maybe they were new found friends. Gage's dad had a way of smoothing things over with her Dad when it came to moving junk.

"Well, everything it OK in your room, right?" Gage looked at her as if he was ready to hide there if she were.

She nodded, still not sure where any of this was going. Maybe she'd just end up here, by herself. Like always. Technically, her parents were still married. Just separated. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her Dad who kept signing up to go back overseas with the Marines. Now he was too old. He had a limp. He still hadn't said much to her.

Of course, her Mom was all "Oh..I didn't know it was this bad.." She kept hugging Macy from time to time, as if she was one item she hadn't meant to forget. Her mom called at least once week from Denver and Macy always said things were fine. "You should have told me." Her simple little sentence hurt Macy the most, and she felt as if she was fading into the trash of memories around her. Yes, she felt like fast food that someone left like litter on the highway.

But Gage was there and he held her hand.

"Look, there is this thing I want you to do with me." He said as if he didn't have time to explain it.

"What thing?" She squinted, wishing he wouldn't talk so much in riddles. It was tough to digest how complex he was, all those personalities of his. Maybe he was plain and ordinary, after all. She let her fingers slip from his hands and she pushed both her hands into the back of her old jeans shorts. Yes, it was November and she was in summer clothes. No one had thought she might need a coat yet. She was in a sweat, anyhow. She was a very hot body in the perspiration sense.

"Well...its Halie. I don't want to talk to her alone." He was being mysterious, as usual. "You know, on the computer. I told her I wanted her ..to meet..YOU."

"Why?" Macy squinted harder, thinking it was an awful idea.

His Dad called for him to take some things to the recycling center.

"Just because." He backed away with that endearing smile of his.

She guessed she'd think about it.

Suddenly, she realized, she was alone with her Dad and he was holding a framed picture of her when she was small.

"You haven't really changed." He smiled.

"Yeah, right." He didn't know her. She doubted if he even knew that little girl in the picture. He was a Marine. He didn't have time for a family.

"Look, your mother and I are going to try to work this out. Its been tough, lately." He talked of how he couldn't keep a job like he wanted too. It wasn't all his fault. "The thing is, your brother needs to be with us, too."

Macy looked at her father shocked. She didn't know she had a brother.