Free Chosen by Denise Grover Swank

checked the mirror and saw Jake smiling at him. Will looked back toward the road, the hair on his arms prickling.
    Jake knew . Maybe he was bluffing. Will cast another glance toward Jake, but he knew he wasn’t. Why would Jake let him take them to South Dakota if he knew the truth? Maybe the people in South Dakota weren’t bad. There was the possibility the South Dakota people would protect them.
    I never said you were bad . Jake’s words reverberated in Will’s mind like they had against the dirty bathroom walls. Boy, was that kid wrong. The last ten years of his life were drenched in filth. The things he’d done…some on the orders of other people, some on his own. There had been a time when he was good, back when he was the little boy with a dog named Rusty. Life was so simple when he was a kid. Will had believed in fairness and justice. He had believed in right and wrong. When he was a little boy, he believed in heroes. Then he went to Iraq. He had joined the service to be a hero, just like his dad. But he came back a pariah, with the dishonorable discharge to prove it.
    In Will’s world, there were no such things as heroes.
     

     
    Something happened between Jake and Will in the bathroom, but damned if Emma knew what it was. Jake acted like nothing was wrong. He played with his car and stuffed dog in the backseat, occasionally pointing out an amusing road sign or a road kill that caught his attention. Will, on the other hand, was in a dark mood. He alternated griping and wringing the steering wheel with both hands. He hadn’t said a single word since they left the reststop and Emma didn’t dare talk to him. Not that she had anything to say. Regardless, she didn’t want her neck wrung instead of the steering wheel.
    Traffic increased as they got closer to Wichita. Will turned off an exit and pulled into the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel, still silently fuming. After they got out of the truck, Jake smiled and took Will’s hand. Although Will seemed reluctant to hold Jake’s hand, he accepted it anyway. Anxiety twisted in Emma’s chest as she watched Jake attach himself to Will.
    The wait for a table was ten minutes so Jake asked Will to look around with him. Will raised his eyebrows at Emma for approval. She gave a reluctant nod and Jake pulled Will to the back of the store, leaving Emma to tag along.
    Jake wandered to a pile of stuffed animals. He let go of Will’s hand, moving his fingers from animal to animal, lightly touching them. “I have a stuffed dog,” Jake said. “Since I can’t have a real one.”
    “It’s not all fun, you know. Real dogs take a lot of work.” Will picked up a stuffed elephant and held it in his hands.
    “Did Rusty take lots of work?”
    “Sure, I had to feed him and water him and take him for walks after school.”
    Emma was surprised to hear that Jake knew anything about Will having dog. They must have discussed it when she slept earlier. She wondered what else they had talked about.
    “But I bet he loved you. Did he sleep on your bed?”
    Focusing on the back wall, Will’s eyes glazed over. “Yeah, he did. He was a good dog.”
    Will’s face became softer, more open. Emma had a hard time imagining Will as a little boy, but she was sure she caught a glimpse of what he must have looked like. She felt uncomfortable seeing this side of him, like a bystander overhearing a private conversation.
    “If I had a dog, I would take really good care of it.”
    Will put the stuffed animal down in the bin and ruffled Jake’s hair. “I’m sure you would.”
    The color rose in Jake’s cheeks as he glanced up at Will, his eyes bright and shining. “I like you, Will.”
    Will’s mouth opened and his eyebrows raised. The intercom overhead announced their table was ready and Will cleared his throat. “That’s us.”
    Smiling up at Will, Jake took his hand, and led the way to the hostess. Jake’s short legs stretched to match Will’s strides. Emma followed behind them,