Krista’s dad had made sure I had pictures and Noah’s baby book, so I could at least read about them. The first thing he said was ‘ba ba’, a word he used for his bottle. He got his first tooth at five months and took his first steps at nine. The pictures of my little boy were cute, but they didn’t fill that absence of not being there. Noah would never judge me for that. I think the kid loved me before he had even met me. I still didn’t understand why Krista did what she did, but she never kept it a secret that I was his father. I had to believe that she always did want to tell me.
I started thinking about Conner and how upset his father would have been if he saw how his son was behaving. The company he was keeping was what was bringing him down. The girls kept getting more rough looking and obviously had introduced him into a new kind of party life.
None of us kids were raised to take up with people that lived like that. We knew better. I had to assume that this was Conner’s way of dealing with his loneliness. He was drowning himself in booze and women to get through not having happiness for himself. It wasn’t like the rest of us were gloating in happiness, but it was hard to not see it when you lived on the same property and were related.
My cousin was engulfed in some sort of infomercial about rags you hook on your feet and polish your floor with. I shook my head before calling for his attention. “Hey Ty, what if movin’ away will help Conner out? I know you are worried, but if he is at your place he doesn’t have access to the things he has here. Everyone knows Conner here and they put him on some kind of pedestal. If he moved out of the state, he wouldn’t know anyone. You would be his only means of communication. I just don’t see him changin’ if he still lives here.”
Ty shook his head and leaned his elbows on his knees. He clapped his hands together and kept shaking his head as he talked. “I don’t know man. I’m willing to do whatever we need to do to help him, but this shit is not something I know anything about. If he is using drugs, I can’t allow that shit in my house, or my parent’s house. And frankly, I don’t want that kind of shit happening around my daughter.”
“I get that, but I don’t think it will happen. We need to get him as far away from here as we can for a while. Other than to force him into the military, this is the best scenario.”
Ty didn’t say anything for a good two minutes. I noticed him glaring out the window at the ladies swinging on the porch. “Let me talk to Miranda. I don’t want to say yes or no without really talking to her about it first.”
A weather alert came on the bottom of the screen, catching our attention from the conversation we were having. It was a severe weather alert for our county. They were calling for strong thunderstorms with high winds that could potentially create funnel systems, turning to tornados. “Damn, we picked the wrong weekend to visit.” Ty joked.
“It says we are under the warnin’ until nine tonight. I guess we better get the girls and the kids inside and call to the main house in case they don’t know what’s goin’ on.”
Ty got up and walked outside, while I dialed my mother and let them know about the storm. Sam came running into the house and went right upstairs. She only did that when she was afraid. I had no sooner got off the phone, when I heard the women calling the kids names. I went out to the porch with the rest of the adults and waited to see the kids coming around from the side of the house.
After a good five minutes of calling, Ty and I looked at each other and started walking down the porch steps.
“Where could they have gone? The golf carts are here. His battery operated cars are here. Do you think they are hiding?” Ty suggested.
Thunder rumbled in the distance and I had noticed that the wind was picking up. “Noah doesn’t like thunder storms. If they are hiding then we will see him any second running for the house.”
I felt confident that any second my son, and my niece would come walking up to us. The girls were standing on the edge of the porch looking all around. “Colt, please go check the barn. They are probably with the horses.” Savanna started to walk down the steps. The sound of the wind chimes on our back porch echoed against the woods. I could tell the wind had really picked up by the loud clatter of them.
Ty and I headed toward the barn where we kept the horses. “I’m surprised that we can’t hear Thunder. He starts getting loud when storms come in.”
We both looked at each other and started hauling ass toward that barn. My greatest fears were confirmed when we opened the door and only saw Daisy in her stall. Ty threw his arms up above his head. “Fuck! Goddamn it!”