ON THE DAY HIS MOM DIED, BRAD CLIMBED HIS favorite tree and didn’t plan on ever coming down. Maybe he would have stayed forever if Penny hadn’t come looking for him. She climbed good . . . for a girl.
“You need to come inside, Brad,” she said as she settled on a sturdy branch. “Dad’s ready to put dinner on the table.”
He sniffed, then wiped his tears with his forearm. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’ve gotta come in anyhow.”
He stared down at his hands, now resting on his thighs, folded into tight fists. He didn’t want to go inside. Every room in the house was filled with memories of his mom, and it hurt too much to think about her.
“Please, buddy.”
He heard his tears mirrored in her voice.
“We’ve gotta stick together now, Brad. We need each other.”
“Okay,” he whispered at last. “I’ll come down.”
She looked at him in silence before standing on the branch. Only when her feet touched the ground a short while later did Brad begin his promised descent. Once he was down, Penny put an arm around his shoulders and gave him a quick squeeze.
“It’s gonna be all right,” she whispered.
He might be just a kid, but he knew his big sister didn’t believe that any more than he did. It wasn’t going to be all right. Their mom wasn’t ever coming home again. She wasn’t ever going to go camping with them in the mountains or go riding horseback with them along the river or bake him another birthday cake. She wouldn’t ever again cheer for him at a soccer game on the school field or shout with joy when he made it up on water skis during one of their trips up to McCall. He wouldn’t ever again see her get all mushy with Dad, the way she’d liked to do in the evening when they were all watching a movie.
Brad and Penny walked toward the front of the house, and when they rounded the corner, he saw that only his dad’s truck was parked in the barnyard now. Friends of his parents had been coming by all afternoon, almost the instant word about his mom had gotten out. Some had brought flowers. Some had brought food. Some had just come to say they were sorry. Now, as twilight settled over the valley, the friends were all gone. Gone back to their families and their homes.
Brad had to make himself go inside the house. It felt empty. Haunted almost.
“Dad,” Penny called out. “We’re back.” She kept her arm around Brad’s shoulders, urging him toward the kitchen with a gentle pressure.
It was a sad dinner, the only sounds the clicking of knives and forks against plates. Brad didn’t taste a bite. Whatever he swallowed might as well have been sawdust.
Maybe nothing would ever taste good again.