“Hi,” I peek my head into the room.“I have someone here I’d like you to meet,” I say, pushing the door open a little more.
“Ella?I wasn’t expecting you to visit today.Please, come in.”
I take a step inside, an emotional smile on my face, my hand still on the door.“I found something that couldn’t wait for my visit next week.”
Miles walks through the door as I say it.His body moves slowly, his face serious.I feel the urge to step closer to him, to hold his hand, to ease the turmoil inside him.But I also know I should give him space.He needs it.He can handle this in his own way.So I let him.I give them space.
It took me a few years to understand what Miss Amara had tried to teach me when we let Miles follow his own path and leave us all behind.Now I understand that we have to accept that the people we love need to struggle sometimes in order to grow — that me always stepping in to fix things robs them of their own strengths.I understand it now.
The moment Mr.Marlin realizes what’s happening is the most expressive reaction I’ve ever seen on anyone before.His eyes widen, his entire face fills with emotion.
Miles lifts his t-shirt slightly and turns just enough for Mr.Marlin to see.Letting him experience the exact moment I had when Mr.Marlin had bent forward in his wheelchair, his sweater shifting just enough to reveal a familiar pyramid-shaped birthmark on his lower back.We all knew that mark.
“Son?”Mr.Marlin lets the tears fall.
Chapter 65
Miles
August 14th, 2009
Friday
My dad knew my name.
Of course he knows my name.But hearing him say it made me realize it’s real.Some part of me still thinks it can’t be, that it was all a crazy coincidence.Too crazy to be true.
The first few minutes are marked with speeding hearts, static bodies, and teary eyes.
Then, he asks me how old I am now, where I live, what I do for a living, and how I know Ella.
He is slowly getting to know my surface-level self.I answer everything, still in shock, aware of the faint emotion in my voice.
I ask him if he has always lived in Verryn.Could this be where he was all these years I thought he had vanished?
But no.Valecrest.That’s where he had been.
When I ask him about the reason he’s in a wheelchair, he explains it briefly.Not dramatically, not angrily, and not in too much detail.
“You’re confused,” he says, after I remain silent.
Ella sits in silence too, on the chair near the window, further away from us, a quiet observer in our conversation.I had seen her move toward the door the moment my dad asked me his first question, but I reached out, wordlessly asking her to stay.
“How long have you been living with it?”I ask, referring to his illness.None of it makes sense to me.
He looks at me with tenderness in his eyes, eyes I don’t really know.And yet, strangely, they feel familiar… comforting.“Since you were really young.”
“Then why did you leave us?I could have helped you.”
His soft smile doesn’t fade.“How’s your mother?”he asks instead.
I pause before answering his change of subject.“She’s fine.She’s happy.”
My dad nods, his gaze dropping to the floor, his smile still faintly there.
“Did you already know you were sick when you left us?”I ask lightly, my voice carrying hurt and worry.“Why did you want to go through this alone?”
“I didn’t, son.”His voice remains calm, even.“I didn’t choose to go through this alone.But I want you to remember that we all have our own limitations.You should talk to your mother before you and I talk about the past.”
