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Reading was the last subject on my mind, however. The moment Mac and Adam came into the house with Henry, the three of them dusted in new-fallen snow, all I could think about was how damn distressed I was.
“Uh oh,” Adam said with a smile as he set Henry down. “You’re in for it now.”
I sprang out of my chair, making my way toward Henry with long strides. While I was happy as hell to see the kid, there was no way I could pretend I wasn’t upset.
“Buddy!” I said, dropping to a squat and putting my hands on my knees. “What’s the story? You go out with Uncle Mac and Uncle Adam and then I hear you wandered off?”
Henry’s eyes got even bigger. He knew he’d done something wrong.
“Remember when you asked to go? Do you remember what Uncle Mac said?”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded slowly.
“What did Uncle Mac say?”
“Um…”
“Let me jog your memory, bud,” Mac’s voice boomed down from his six-foot-four-inch height. “I said that you could come with me, as long as you didn’t run off.”
“Do you remember now?” I asked Henry.
He looked at me, then up at Adam, then Mac. The kid seemed too scared to speak.
“Mind if I talk to him alone?” I asked.
“Have at it.”
“We’ll check on the food. But Henry, we’re going to have a little chat of our own later, you hear?”
Henry nodded. With that, Adam and Mac left, both of them giving Henry’s brown hair a tussle as they did.
“Come with me, big man.”
I stood and offered Henry my hand. He took it, and together we headed off to the den. The room was big and comfy and inviting as always, with two giant, overstuffed leather couches at a right angle in front of the massive fireplace, a big fire roaring behind the metal, child-safe gate. The furniture was situated on top of a big, circular Oriental rug, the walls of the room lined with bookshelves packed with colorful spines. A few paintings of the local landscape were hung here and there.
On a snowy day like today, it was the most ideal place to spend a few hours with a good book or just watching the fire, relaxing and taking a nap.
We sat down on one of the couches, the reflection of the fire casting Henry’s handsome little face in a flickering orange glow.
“What happened?” I asked. “Let’s start there.”
He wrung his tiny hands, as if trying to figure out where to begin.
“Um, I saw a road and I went for a walk.”
I knew instantly that the “road” he was referring to was Halbrook Trail, one of the landmarks that formed the border between the eastern edge of our property and Downing Farm.
“You know that Halbrook Trail isn’t ours, right? We’ve shown you and your sister several times where our land starts and ends. But you went over there anyway.”
“Yeah. I wanted to see the creek.”
“And you waited until your uncles weren’t looking, then ran off. Is that right?”
Wouldn’t have been hard for Mac and Adam to quickly lose sight of him—there was plenty of tree cover over in that area for a kid to hide in. I could easily picture Henry ducking behind one tree or another and running in the other direction while Adam and Mac looked for him.
“That’s right.”
“Gotta be honest, bud. I’m not liking this story.”
