The Boy Who Ran Away Hungry
Chapter 05 - The Boy Who Ran Away Hungry
Clara searched the alleys first.
Daniel searched the road.
By noon, half the town had joined them.
Jamie had taken no coat, no food, and only one nickel. Luke blamed himself because the night before he had whispered that Clara might lose the General Store room because of them.
Daniel said nothing when he heard that.
He simply removed his suit jacket, rolled his sleeves, and climbed into the back of an old farm truck with Luke.
"Where does he go when he's scared?" Daniel asked.
Luke wiped his nose with his sleeve.
"He likes trains."
Daniel's stomach tightened.
The abandoned freight depot sat two miles outside town.
They found Jamie beneath the loading platform, curled beside a wooden crate.
He was shivering.
Daniel crouched several feet away.
"I used to hide near trains too."
Jamie looked up.
"You did?"
"When I was about your age."
"Did your grandma find you?"
Daniel could not answer immediately.
"No."
Jamie stared at the dirt.
"Maybe she didn't want you."
The words landed harder than the accusation Daniel had carried for seventeen years.
He sat on the ground.
"Maybe she couldn't find me."
Jamie considered that.
Then he whispered, "Grandma always finds us."
Daniel looked toward the horizon where Clara's figure was approaching with Luke.
She was limping from exhaustion, but she did not slow.
Jamie scrambled out from beneath the platform and ran to her.
Clara dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around him.
"You could never be a burden," she said into his hair. "Do you understand me? Never."
Daniel looked away.
He remembered being eight years old and waiting at a station for a mother he believed had chosen not to come.
That evening, Daniel returned to his hotel room and opened the surrender document again.
For the first time, he studied the witness signature.
H. Hale.
He called Victor into the room.
"Your grandfather witnessed this."
Victor glanced at the paper.
"So?"
"So you told me your family had never dealt with the Bennetts."
Victor's face became still.
Daniel stepped closer.
"Why did you lie?"
Victor buttoned his coat.
"Because some history is better left buried."
May you like
Then he walked out.
And Daniel knew there was more than one forged document in Bellweather.
