Wild Nights, Hot And Crazy Days

Part 2.6: To Err Is Human... To Forgive Is... Probably Pretty Stupid Of Me

Dad brought the truck around to the bike rack and Colin and I loaded the bikes into the back of it. We then got into the truck, Colin into the rear jump seat and me into the passenger seat. Dad drove the truck across the parking lot, pulled into a parking spot, and shut the truck off.

"Ok, boys. I want to know the truth. What's going on? What really happened?"

I said, "I really don't know. I was buying this perfume for Mom. Colin disappeared, I had no idea where he went until a security guard came looking for me."

Dad turned to look at Colin in the back seat. "Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Well then, I want you to tell me what happened. Everything."

Colin slowly and carefully repeated the story.

"So you didn't realize the glasses were still on your head?"

"No."

Dad gazed out of the windshield at nothing in particular while he considered this. "I suppose I can see that. I'm always forgetting where I put my glasses and yes, sometimes they've been on my head the whole time..."

Everyone remained silent. Colin finally spoke up, very feebly:

"Can't we just go home? I want this day to end."

Dad sighed. He turned to face Colin again, a strained look on his face.

"Now there's a problem. I can't take you home."

Colin and I both said "What do you mean?"

"I was talking to Constable LeBlanc. Carmen already knows this, but he's my next-door neighbour. He told me he talked to your parents..." and broke off. Colin and I both stared expectantly at him.

"This isn't easy to say, but I have to say it. They don't want you to come home."

I gasped, but Colin didn't react at all. Dad paused as if waiting for the news to sink in. "Colin?..."

"I know. I heard when he was talking to them on the phone. I told him this would happen."

Dad turned to stare through the windshield again. I could tell he was trying to compose himself.

"Yeah, Constable LeBlanc told me about that. I was shocked that any parent could say that to their kid, but then he told me that you are adopted."

"Yeah. So what now?"

"Well, for now, you're coming home with us. You can stay in Kevin's old bedroom."

"You don't have to do this. I don't want to stay anyway..."

"You don't have any choice. I signed papers so that you could be released into my custody. I agreed to take care of you, and I am responsible for you, so you're coming home with us. If you don't want to stay I can always go next door and talk to Constable Leblanc, and you'll be carted off to Waterville. Understand?"

Colin looked down. "Yes", he said.

"And you're both grounded."

"What?!?" I exclaimed. "I didn't do anything!"

"Oh, yes you did. You rode your bicycle to Dartmouth without telling anyone where you were going. You're thirteen years old, too young to be riding that far, so you're grounded. Your bicycle is going to be locked in the shed, and you're not to leave the neighbourhood for the rest of Christmas break. That means no malls, and no lake. If I catch you or hear of you being outside of our neighbourhood I, personally, will kill you. And after I kill you your mother will revive your corpse and kill you again."