Free Shine Your Light on Me by Lee Thompson Page A

Christ. He caught bits of it and drowned them out. There wasn’t a god that cared. Hell, most people didn’t.
    He snuck to his room, shut the door, and rifled through his dresser for warm, dry clothing. He doubled up on his socks (his feet were so cold he doubted they’d ever warm again), and he grabbed another coat from his closet and a hat and gloves and a blanket his mother had made and threw it into a backpack. He took the pillow from his bed. He had an extra pair of boots and put them on. After he’d changed, he stood near the door and looked at his room, for the last time, he figured. It wasn’t a bad room. If his father had done anything for him, it was to spend money on quality junk.
    Sure didn’t make up for what he hadn’t given, but it could have been worse. That was something Bobby had learned early. Things could always be worse. And when he heard the door open behind him, he almost laughed out loud, and he cursed God under his breath and turned to face his father.
     
    • • •
     
    Aria got herself under control as Elroy came into Pine’s bedroom, his expression one of complete frustration. He knelt next to the drawers and said, “Do you remember exactly how he had this stuff arranged?”
    Elroy had always been a good kid. Mickey sometimes teased him about being soft in the head and she could tell it got to the boy, so when she was alone with him, she’d always tried to compliment him on something, usually how he made people laugh, or the compassion he so boldly demonstrated in a world filled with men who judged compassion as weakness.
    She said, “No matter what we do, we’ll never get it exactly as he had it.”
    “What were you thinking?”
    “What do you think of your brother?”
    “What?”
    “Do you ever think that some people are so much like a disease that it would be best to simply kill them?”
    “No,” Elroy said. “I don’t think anyone should kill anyone else for any reason.”
    “I think your brother needs a lobotomy.”
    “Why are you talking about this?”
    “You saw what happened at LeDoux’s. It was incredible, wasn’t it? And then, when you see something shortly after that is bad enough to begin with, you can actually see it for what it is. Does that make any sense?”
    “Are you okay?”
    “I’m not okay,” Aria said. “We need to do something about your brother, and I need to talk to your father about what happened with your friend Aiden.”
    “We have to put this stuff back.”
    “Did you know what he was doing to Jessica?”
    “Who? Pine?”
    “Yes, who else would hurt a damaged little girl like her?”
    “What did he do?”
    “I’d rather not talk about.”
    “Tell me,” Elroy said.
    “I caught him touching her in ways he shouldn’t have.”
    Elroy thought about it for a second and then nodded, his expression grim. He looked much older all the sudden, and his eyes were bright. He said, “What do we do?”
    Aria moved over next to him and gathered up all Pine’s trophies and looked again through the photos. She lingered for a moment on Jack’s suffering. She frowned and squared her shoulders again. “I already told Mitch, left him a voice mail. I thought you were Pine coming home, catching me in here, and I didn’t know what he’d do and I had to tell Mitch.”
    Elroy stood and he pressed his soft body against hers and he lifted his arms and draped them around her. He was soft, and gentle, and it was the first time he’d ever hugged her.
    She had always thought he had a secret animosity toward her, or at least complicated feelings, while Pine didn’t care if she was in their lives or out, and Mitch seemed to look at her more as a sister than his stepmother. She hugged Elroy back and her eyes were dry, but the poor kid sobbed against her shoulder and she felt his chest expand and deflate and she said, “I’m going to stop him.”
    He held her a moment longer, and she let him, and when he let her go, he broke their embrace and stepped back