Runaway(ON HOLD)

6

     Harry disappeared for a few days.  I missed him a lot; now, I only had Mr. Tree to talk to, and he never responded to me. Every night, I would look out at the sparkling stars and know how Harry had broken his promise to me.

     I wondered if he'd ever come back.  I had told him I believed him about not hurting that Tanya girl, but he was gone just the same.

     I really did believe him.  I don't know why Tanya would lie, especially on T.V., but I don't know why Harry would lie either.  I mean, I didn't even understand exactly what she said he did to her, but the way Harry reacted really scared me.  And then he just disappeared . . .

     "Autumn!" Aunty snapped, yanking me out of my thoughts.

     "Sorry, what?" I said quickly.

     "I've asked you to pass the butter five times!  Are you deaf or something?"  Aunty scolded, and I slowly passed the butter to her without another word.  Aunty looked at me curiously.  "You okay?"

     I just nodded.  "Yeah.  Just . . . friend troubles."

    Aunty took a large bite out of her corn on the cob.  "I thought you didn't have any friends," she said through a mouth of food.

     "I had one," I sighed, playing with my food but not actually eating it.

     "Yeah? What happened?" she asked, chewing loudly.

     "Nothing.  He just . . . he broke his promise on the stars," I muttered quietly.

     Aunty suddenly dropped her corn loudly onto her plate.  Her dark eyes widened, and her mouth hung open.  "What did you just say?" she whispered, her eyes glinting with disbelief and her hands trembling.

     I gave her a weird look.  "Aunty, what're you--"

     "Did you just say 'promise on the stars'?" she repeated, her facial expression unchanging.

     "I--Yeah, I did.  Why?"  I responded. She was starting to scare me.

     "Impossible.  There's no way she remembers that," Aunty mumbled mostly to herself.

     "What's going on?" I asked, my voice wavering.

      "Who . . . Who told you about that phrase?"  asked Aunty, her upper lip quivering.

     "No one told me about it.  I just . . . started saying it.  What's--" I began, but she cut me off.

     "Don't you ever say that agian, Autumn, do you hear me?" Aunty threatened loudly, directing her angry gaze at me and waving her finger in my face.  I shrank back.

     "Promise on the stars?  But why?" I asked, completely confused.

      "DON'T!" Aunty roared, leaping up out of her seat and staring me angrily, her chest heaving up and down.  "Don't you ever say that again, Autumn!"

     "Aunty, what's--"

     "Go upstairs to your room and put on your pj's.  You're going to bed," Aunty said with a note of finality.  I knew I couldn't argue with her, so I just quietly slid my dish in the sink and, out of habit, glanced up out of the big window above the sink.  My heart nearly leapt out of my chest.

     Harry was standing out in the empty lot, his silhoutte just barely visible from the light of the moon.  He sheepishly waved at me, and I gave him a giant smile back.

     I turned around and met Aunty's gaze.  Her troubled scowl was so intense, it melted the smile right off of my lips.  I just ducked my head and crept up the stairs to wait for Aunty to go to sleep so that I could finally go see Harry again.

     The stars were beautiful that night.  They danced in the sky, not a cloud in sight.  I sighed contently, my belly full of peanut butter and jelly. 

     Harry settled down on his back next to me, wiping the crumbs off of his hands and onto his jeans.  He wasn't as dirty as he had been before I made him take a shower before he had disappeared, but his hair was starting to get a bit greasy and his clothes still had dirt marks on them.  The pictures I had drawn on his arms were still there, but they  had faded a lot.  I hadn't asked him where he had gone yet because I had a feeling he wouldn't tell me, but I was really curious.  I was still a little uneasy about being next to him, but as we continued talking, it started to fade away.

     "Yeah, it was so weird.  Aunty just freaked out on me," I said after filling him in on Aunty's burst.

     Harry frowned.  "That is weird.  I wonder why she got so mad at it."

     I just shrugged.  After a few moments of comfortable silence, I finally worked up the courage to ask him where he'd gone.  "Doesn't matter," he responded.

     "I know," I said quietly.  "But I still wanna know."

     He sighed slightly.  "I had some things I needed to take care of."

    I was terrified to ask my next question, but I had to know.  "Did you hurt anyone while you were gone?"

     "Hey, hey, hey," Harry said, his eyebrows creased in concern, and I heard rustling as he turned his head to face me, and I did the same.  "I have never, nor do I ever plan to, hurt somebody, okay?  If you really want to know, I . . . I had to see this girl, Aubrey.  But I had to do it secretly so that no one knew I was there."

     "Is she your girlfriend?"

     Harry offered a distant smile.  "I want her to be.  But things are . . . complicated, to put it mildly."

     "So, you went back home?" I asked cautiously.  I knew this was a touchy subject, but this was the most I had ever gotten out of Harry.

     He nodded slowly.  "I did.  I didn't want to, but after what happened . . . I had to see Aubrey."

     "Do you love her?"

     Harry chuckled.  "Yeah.  I think . . . I think I do."

     I smiled at that.  I liked knowing Harry had someone to love.  Turning my head back so that I could watch the stars again, I sighed happily.  "I'm glad you came back, Harry. I missed you."

     "I missed you too, kid."

     "Are you ever gonna go back home again?"

     Harry thought for a moment before answering.  "I don't know," he answered truthfully.  "I don't really have a home anymore.  You know as well as I do that home isn't where your parents are, or where you grew up or anything.  I like to think of this field as my home, if that's okay with you."

    I grinned.  "Only as long as you let Mr. Tree stay with you."

    "Deal."