TRUTH

Did you already figure out we were going to a cemetery? Yeah, that’s where my mom took me next.

And I can’t say I was 100 percent surprised either. I just didn’t know how much I already suspected until we were pulling up to the gate and I saw where we were.

Mom reached over and put her hand on top of mine. Not holding it, just more like covering it.

“Your dad was a soldier,” she said. “He enlisted in the army when you were seven and Georgia was five. Then he went to war.”

Mom looked at me, and her eyes were wet. I think maybe mine were too.

She took a box out of the backseat and showed me a picture of Dad in his uniform, and a medal that I guess he got while he was overseas.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” I asked Mom. I didn’t understand any of this yet.

“I’m sorry, Rafe,” she said. “It’s complicated for me. Your dad was a hero to his country, in the end. But he wasn’t always a hero to our family. Not when he left us. It’s been hard finding the right way to talk to you about this. But I absolutely should have.”

I looked at that picture, and that medal, for a long time. Then I looked outside the car and around the cemetery.

“Where is he?” I said.

My mom pointed over toward some trees. “Over there, Rafe. Do you want to go and see?”

I took a really deep breath.

“Yeah,” I said.

And that’s what we did.

My mom took my hand, and we walked over to see my dad.