Soft (Kleinsen)

Sincerely, Me

Later that day, Heidi stepped into Evan's room, holding a ahead of papers, while still in her work clothes.

"Hey you," she smiled. "I have some very excited news. Look what I found online today." She showed him the papers. "College scholarship essay contests. Have you heard of these?"

Evan took one of the papers and looked at it. "I think so.."

"NPR did a whole thing about it this morning. There's a million different ones you can do with so many topics. I spent my whole lunch break printing these out!"

Heidi started handing the papers to him one by one while she summarized them.

"Wow," gasped Evan.

"College is going to be great for you, honey. How many times in life do you just get to start over again?"

Evan nodded. "No, I know."

"You've got so much, so many wonderful things ahead of you. High school isn't always.. the only people that like high school are cheerleaders and football players and those people all end up miserable anyway. Yeah, you're going to find yourself in college. I really think so, I mean, I wish I could go with you.. but.."

She sensed Evan's lack of enthusiasm, and started to feel embarrassed. "I just thought these were.. it seemed like a neat idea."

Evan cracked a smile. "It is. For sure."

"You always been a wonderful writer and we're going to need all the help we can get for college. Unless your stepmother has a trust fund for you I don't know about with all those fabulous tip she made a cocktail waitress thing..."

Evan pretended to laugh along with his mother.

"Hey. I, um. I got an email from your school today. About a boy who killed himself? Connor Murphy? I didn't, I had no idea."

Evan sighed and looked at her. "Oh. Yeah. Well... I didn't really know him."

She smile at him. "You know that... If you ever, if you want to talk about anything... I realized that lately it must feel like, I'm always working or I'm in class..."

He grinned. "Thanks."

She sighed. "Well, I'm here. And if I'm not here here, I'm a phone call away. Or text. Email. Whatever."

"Thanks," he repeated.

Unable to ignore the obvious any longer, she pointed to Evans cast which reads Connor. "All right. It says, "Connor." You said you didn't know him."

He looked at the cast and back at his mother. "Oh. Yeah. No. I didn't. This is... It's a different Connor."

Heidi sighed, relieved. "I was worried for a second there."

"No, I'm sure."

Heidi brightened up. "Hey, you know what? How about I bad my shift next Tuesday? When's the last time we did at Taco Tuesday?"

"That would be great."

"Oh. That's exciting. I'm excited now. Something to look forward to."

"Me too," he chuckled.

Heidi went over and picked up the bottle of pills by his bed she asked gingerly, "Are you okay on refills?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Well," she sighed. "Don't stay up too late."

"I won't, I love you."

She smiled. "I love you too." She stands there in the doorway for a moment, hesitating, unsettled about something. Finally, she shuts the door.