JOSH STOOD UP AND put his hand on the tree’s rough bark, steadying himself against the immovable mass of the old tree.
His mother’s voice was strained. “It’s long and it’s complicated, but the agreement your father and I have with custody of you kids says that he has to pay a certain amount of child support for you and a certain amount for Laurel. Do you understand?”
“No,” Josh said. “What are you talking about?”
“If you live with me, your father—by law—has to pay me more money,” she said.
“Enough to keep the house?” Josh asked.
“Enough to have a chance of keeping it. Without you and the support money, there’s just no way. I already spoke to the bank. They’re not going to wait. Your father has been making promises to the bank and breaking them for a while. The extra money we had from his Nike contract he already spent on that car and other stupid things. I asked Gran to help. She said she will, but only if I get you back and force your father to pay the full support.”
“Force him?” Josh gripped the hair on top of his head. “What do you mean?”
“The court won’t let him get behind on child support. They’ll issue a judgment, and it’ll come right out of his paycheck. Don’t worry about that part, Josh.” She hesitated. “Will you come back?”
“I thought you couldn’t control me?”
“Oh, Josh. I’m confused. I’m sorry, honey. Come back. I need you.” His mother sounded almost out of breath. “Laurel wants you here, Josh. She misses you. I do too.”
“How?” Josh paced the brick walkway, one hand still clenching his hair, the other pressing the phone to his ear.
“That’s my boy, Josh.” He could feel his mom’s relief. “Your father can take you to the airport and get you a ticket. He will. He has to. He can’t take you out of state unless I agree, and I’m taking back my agreement.”
“You can do that?”
“Josh, the bank put up a sign on the fence. They’re going to auction our home. I can do whatever I have to do to stop it. I will do whatever I have to.” Her voice turned mean, and Josh quaked at the thought of telling his father he wanted to go back. He’d never felt so torn in his life.
“Can I just go?” Josh said.
“What do you mean, honey?” his mother asked.
“He’s gonna be mad, Mom.”
“You let me talk to him, Josh. He’ll behave.”
Josh looked back at the dorm building. Hidden in the bushes beneath its ground-floor windows, a dozen spotlights lit the bricks and the painted white trim. It was enormous and solid, like a fortress. Josh just wanted to run. He felt more and more tied up, like a fishing line twisted and looped and knotted beyond repair.
“I don’t know.” His voice sounded distant. The shaggy tree above swallowed everything but the sound of the crickets.
“Just come home, Josh. You’ll be able to sort things out better here.”
“If I want to come back to Florida, can I?” Josh didn’t want to cut off any escape routes, and he thought his father might let him leave more easily if there was a chance he might return.
“Of course,” his mom answered, almost too fast. “If your father is willing to make the house payments and you feel like it’s the best thing for you, Josh, I won’t keep you from doing that. I won’t want you to go, but I won’t stop you. Just come back. I know you’ll feel better with Jaden and Benji to talk to.”
Josh almost asked his mother how she knew that’s what he’d been thinking but stopped himself. He had to be careful. With the state his parents were in, Josh needed to keep his cards close to the vest and play them very carefully. Hadn’t his dad just said that he was glad Josh ran away? Now he knew why. This was getting really crazy.
“Okay. Dad might let me go then.”
“Josh, he has to let you go. The police will take you if he doesn’t.”
“Police?”
“It’s not going to happen. He won’t let it. He can’t. He’s got this new, precious job. He can’t afford to have trouble before he even gets started. Trust me.”
“Okay.” The thought of his friends, his home, his school, and his baseball team was too much. “But you gotta do it. Not me. I’m not telling him. I’ll just go along. Okay? Can you do that?”
“Yes, as long as you want to come, I’ll tell him he has to send you home. I’ll take the heat.”
“Should I just go back inside?” Josh asked.
“Yes. You can tell him as much or as little as you like. You can tell him to call me, or I’ll just ring him up myself. Do you want me to wait and do it when you’re there, or should I call now? Where are you?”
“Just outside, on a bench, under some trees.”
“It’s your call,” she said.
“Okay,” he said, “let me go back in. I’ll tell him you were saying some stuff, but I didn’t understand and I told you to talk to him about it.”
“I’ll give you ten minutes,” she said. “I love you, Josh.”
“I love you too, Mom.” Josh hung up. He spent a few more minutes walking outside, thinking, before returning to the dorm room. It had only been a few days, and his whole life had fallen apart. And now, just when things were starting to settle down here in Florida, his house was being sold. He thought back to that home run derby. Maybe when he got back to Syracuse, he could still do it.
His father lay in the bed propped up on his pillow, working on his laptop. He looked over the tops of his glasses. “Feel better?”
Josh sat on the bed and focused on untying his shoes. “I don’t know. I talked to Mom. She was talking kind of crazy. I’m not sure what she was even saying.”
“Crazy, like what?” His father set his laptop down and sat up straight.
Josh shrugged.
His father’s phone rang. He answered. “Laura? What’s going on?”
Josh held his breath.