Hidden Burdens

The Truth Should Set You Free

Ben took deep breaths while trying to slow his heart rate. He had not expected to speak up like that, but seeing Claudia dragging Kimmy down the stairs against her will triggered him too much to stay silent.

The whole time his body shook in anxiousness and his heart raced so fast Ben was sure it would leap out of his chest. In fact, he kept picturing those old cartoon characters whose hearts would beat so strongly it looked like they were coming out whenever there was a strong reaction.

Kayla helped, similar to how she had been helping Kimmy while John headed upstairs to check on her.

Ben wiped his hands down his face.

Grandma Joy offered him a motherly embrace, which he graciously accepted. He did not know where his dad was. At the moment, Ben did not care, glad to have Kayla and her mom there.

Once he was calm enough, they returned to the kitchen to serve the food. Ben served everyone Claudia's favorite meal. He set aside two plates for John and Kimmy, as well.

When Herb stepped up to accept a plate, he tried to encourage his son it gets easier, meaning when Ben had to be tough with Claudia. Ben instantly brushed him off, not wanting to hear how it got easy for Herb to be tough on him, and had planned on talking with Claudia about it later.

Something Herb never did.

Kayla made sure everyone had a drink, as well.

While they were all sitting down and eating, John called for Kayla to come upstairs.

They looked at each other. Kayla shrugged and used her napkin to wipe around her mouth and hands before leaving the table to head upstairs.

She returned towards the end when everyone else was about done, heading over to whisper something in Herb's ear. He nodded and stood up from the stool to follow Kayla outside for a moment.

In the meantime, both John and Kimmy came downstairs together. John reheated their plates in the microwave. They took both spots at the counter where Herb had been sitting.

Kayla came back inside, alone.

He watched Kayla grab her plate to reheat it in the microwave as well. "Did my dad leave?" Ben hung his arm on the back of his chair.

For now, Kayla told him she would talk with him about it later and let Claudia open her presents, one of them being a birthday card with five dollars in it from Herb, which he had left when no one was looking.

On the front of the card, he had added foster with one of those arrows to the card greeting, Happy Birthday, granddaughter! Inside, Herb had humorously written, Don't spend it all in one place, meaning the five dollars.

Claudia kept sniffing the front of the card. "Good lord, what kind of marker is this? I'm pretty sure I can get high off of this."

Ben rubbed the bridge of his nose at the teen girl's humor and told her to stop smelling the card, to which she joked it could be one of those scratch-and-sniff cards.

He just sighed in defeat.

Kimmy slid off her stool and made her way over to hand Claudia a handmade card, thankfully helping her to finally move on from sniffing the card.

"I'm glad you finally decided to come down and join us, kid." Claudia insisted she really did want Kimmy there and thanked her for the handmade card.

Kimmy also surprised Claudia with a small gift she bought herself.