The Grandfather Test
Chapter 09 - The Grandfather Test
Eli was placed in temporary kinship care with Mack after an emergency inspection of the garage apartment.
The caseworker checked smoke detectors, locked cabinets, food supplies, sleeping arrangements, and nearly every detail of Mack’s life.
Mack passed everything except the interview.
“Describe your parenting experience,” she said.
“I raised a son.”
“How would Daniel describe that experience?”
Mack looked at the floor.
“Complicated.”
That evening, Eli arrived carrying a plastic bag containing two shirts, a toothbrush, and a school notebook.
He stood in the doorway of the apartment above the garage.
The walls were plain. The furniture was old. A photograph of Daniel sat on the mantel.
Eli walked straight to it.
“My mom has the same picture.”
Daniel was nineteen in the photograph, smiling beside his first rebuilt motorcycle.
Eli touched the frame.
“Did he like pancakes?”
Mack blinked.
“Yes.”
“Did he put too much syrup on them?”
“Yes.”
“Did he sing badly in the car?”
“Worse than anyone I’ve ever heard.”
Eli smiled for the first time.
The expression made him look so much like Daniel that Mack had to turn away.
That night, Mack burned the pancakes.
Eli ate them anyway.
Later, Mack found him awake beneath the blankets.
“Grant said bikers steal children,” Eli whispered.
“Some bikers do bad things. So do some men in suits.”
“Did you do bad things?”
Mack sat on the edge of the bed.
“Yes.”
Eli waited.
Mack told him about his old conviction, the fights, and the years he believed toughness was the same as strength.
“Are you still bad?”
“I’m trying not to be.”
Eli considered that answer.
“My dad told Mom you were the bravest man he knew.”
Mack looked down.
“He said that?”
“He also said you were too stubborn to apologize.”
A laugh escaped Mack before he could stop it.
Daniel had known him well.
Eli reached beneath his pillow and handed him a page torn from the notebook.
It was a drawing of three people standing beside a motorcycle.
A woman, a boy, and a large bald man.
Above them, Eli had written one word.
Home.
Mack stared at it until the letters blurred.
May you like
Then Eli asked the question Mack had been avoiding.
“Did my dad die because he was trying to get away from you?”
