AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Keeblers brought us home, much to Samantha and Andrew’s horror.
Samantha was hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. In all the years I’ve known her, I’ve only seen Samantha Bailey cry three times, and that was one of them.
The second and third times came much later.
I needed stitches in my left hand, but miraculously, Baby June came home without a scratch on her. I promised I would keep her safe, and I kept that promise. I kept it for a long time.
I kept it for as long as I possibly could.
But…I should have known no one can keep a promise like that forever.
Not even Mom.
But I’ll get to that. First, you should know that night triggered a new chapter for me and the Baileys. Not only was it the last time I ever set foot into my childhood house, but it wasn’t long before I left the Baileys’ house, too.
Less than two months later, we moved.
4
FIRST STEP
BRANT, AGE 8
“It’s a good day to save someone,” Theo hollers. “Hurry up, Peach!”
He’s yelling over his shoulder at us, while I hang back with June, who is already running out of steam. She’s only two, and her legs are so little.
She makes a scowl that looks more adorable than mean. “Me June!” she calls back.
Theo calls her Peach, just like in Mario, but June doesn’t like it.
We’re running through the acres of our backyard, home to a plethora of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and a custom-built tree house made by Mr. Bailey. We’ve lived here for almost two years now, and it might be my favorite place in the whole world—for a few reasons.
One, it doesn’t remind me of The Bad Night. I don’t have to look out the front window and see my old driveway, and I don’t have to stare at the familiar bricks and stones while I wait at my bus stop. I don’t have to ride my bike past the sad, overgrown lawn, or look at the porch and think of the very last time my mother called me a good boy.
Two, I have my own bedroom. The Baileys made sure to buy a house with an extra bedroom just for me, and even though I spend a lot of time in Theo’s room playing games and making forts—and even more time in June’s room with puzzles and building blocks—I have a private space to draw and do my homework. I have a quiet bed where I can dream alone. Mrs. Bailey tucks me in each night and reads me a story, reminding me that Mom is watching over me.
I dream a little easier, imagining my mother floating over the rainbow, smiling wide, smelling like caramel and taffy apples.
And three…June took her first steps in this backyard, on her first birthday.
It turns out she was born in the early morning hours of June first. That’s why Mr. and Mrs. Bailey gave her that name. She was born right around the same time my parents died, and I’m not sure what to think of that yet. All I know is that I was sad on June’s first birthday, really sad. Everyone walked around the house all quiet and mopey, not knowing what to say to me. I wouldn’t even have known it was the anniversary of The Bad Night, but Theo spilled the beans during a video game marathon, telling me he overheard his parents talking about it. Aunt Kelly stopped by to visit, filling my palm with multicolored Skittles, minus the purple ones of course, and giving me wet cheek kisses. She told me she was visiting my momma’s gravestone. I didn’t want to go, so she said she’d try again next year.
But here we are…next year. A whole year went by, and I still didn’t want to go.
I wanted to stay here and celebrate June’s second birthday—because when June turned one year old, the most amazing thing happened.
She walked.
And not only did she walk…she walked straight to me. She hobbled right into my arms.
Nobody could believe it.
June had the biggest smile on her face, and she said my name the best she could, which sounded a little bit like “Bat!” She says it better now, but she still can’t really say her R sounds.
“No wun,” June tells me, tottering to a stop, winded and overly dramatic. We haven’t even run that far. “I sit.”
She plops down in the lush grass, her stuffed elephant dropping beside her.
