Part 4
The latch gave a small click. Calvin stood before the door had opened more than a hand’s width. A figure filled the gap, holding an unlit flashlight. Baxter came up beside Calvin, rigid from nose to tail.
The sound of Reuben’s truck had gone away several minutes earlier, leaving Calvin unsure whether he had heard it at all. He could smell the cold outdoor air coming in behind his brother-in-law. In a barn he would have known what to do with a horse crowding a narrow doorway. Here the sleeping child behind him made every movement feel too large. He shifted just enough to keep Baxter from slipping into the hall ahead of him.
Reuben stopped. For a moment all three of them listened to Auggie breathing behind his father. Then the flashlight came on and shone against Calvin’s shirt.
“What are you doing in here?” Calvin asked.
Reuben tried to step around him. “I left something in Auggie’s room.”
“You have a room of your own.”
“I know. The flashlight, maybe. I don’t need a lecture.” Reuben kept his voice low, careful not to wake Louisa. Calvin thought of the bus mornings, the meals, and the sister who had made a place for him. He waited for an explanation of why any of that required coming in through the back door at two in the morning. Reuben gave him none.
“Then tell me what it is.”
Instead Reuben crouched and reached past the open door toward the corner where Auggie kept his bricks. Calvin caught his wrist. Baxter barked once, loud enough to wake the house.
Auggie sat up. Louisa called from the hall, her words blurred by sleep. Calvin held Reuben still and asked her to switch on the overhead light. The room became painfully ordinary: a child rubbing his eyes, scattered books, the dog’s hackles, Reuben kneeling with his arm half buried in the plastic bin.
Louisa looked first at Calvin’s grip. “Let go of my brother.”
“He reached for the bin,” Calvin said. “I haven’t touched anything in it.”
“You woke the boy up.” She took a step toward Auggie, then stopped because Baxter had moved with her. The dog made room for her without a growl and stood between Auggie and Reuben again. For the first time she could look at the arrangement before someone had fallen and everyone was shouting.
“I will. Move Auggie away from the bin.”
The boy slid toward her. Calvin released Reuben, pulled the bin clear, and tipped its contents onto the rug. Red and yellow bricks bounced under the bed. Among them lay a parcel wrapped in black plastic and wound with electrical tape, too large and heavy to belong to the game.
Auggie stared at it. “That’s not mine.”
He showed his mother the place where his flashlight usually went. The boy was frightened by the adults’ faces, but he was certain about his own toys. Calvin asked when he had last seen the wrapped parcel. Auggie said he had not seen it at all. Reuben made a movement as if to help explain, and Baxter’s ears went up. Calvin asked him to be quiet until the child had finished. It was a small thing, letting Auggie complete one sentence without his uncle supplying the rest, and Louisa heard it.
Nobody asked him twice. Louisa moved him behind her, one hand across his chest. Reuben stayed on his knees. The familiar apology was already forming on his face, but there was nowhere for it to land.
Calvin picked up the parcel without unwrapping it. “This is what Wade came for?”
Reuben looked at Baxter. “You should have let her get rid of the dog.”
Louisa’s hand tightened on the boy’s shoulder. She had spent the previous evening convincing herself she was protecting him by arranging the appointment. Her brother’s words told her he had been counting on it. Calvin wanted to name that aloud, to make the room agree with him at last, but Auggie was watching both of them. He put the parcel out of reach instead.
Louisa took a breath that sounded as though it hurt. Calvin set the parcel high on the dresser and sent her with Auggie to the kitchen. He could hear her asking the boy whether Uncle Reuben had come in at night before. Auggie answered in a small voice: his uncle had said the hiding game was a secret and that he should not wake his parents.
Reuben rose slowly. Calvin stood between him and the bedroom door. He wanted to call the sheriff immediately, but Wade’s warning and the men who might be waiting for a call from Reuben had not gone away. He took the black phone from Reuben’s pocket and led him to a chair where he could see both the back door and the hall. No one in the house went back to sleep.
Calvin did not open the parcel himself. If it held something that belonged to Fain, breaking the tape in front of a child would answer none of the urgent questions. He checked the doors, then sat on the porch step for several minutes with the cold sinking through his jeans. Louisa’s car was in the drive. The road beyond it was dark. Reuben was frightened of a man willing to come looking; what frightened Calvin was that the man had already learned where his family slept.
At the table Louisa wrapped Auggie in a blanket. Baxter settled beside the boy’s feet, still watching Reuben. Calvin brought the parcel in and placed it where Reuben could see it.
“You put it in a seven-year-old’s bedroom,” he said. “Tell us what you’ve brought here.”
Reuben looked at Louisa, then at the boy. He had been able to make his sister forgive an unpaid debt and a ruined holiday; the child’s face offered him nothing to work with. Finally he said, “It’s Fain’s book.”
To read the rest of the story – CLICK the NEXT button 👇👇👇