Free Seeker by Andy Frankham-Allen

grampy bought it, Willem thought ruthlessly.
    â€œRight, then, shall we put these away? You’re coming to Uncle Willem’s tonight.”
    Curtis lowered his head. “Mummy and Daddy left me,” he said quietly, his solemn voice reaching right in and pulling the biggest heartstring it could find.
    Willem swallowed hard, and knelt down beside his nephew. “I’m always here for you, buddy. Uncle Willem will never leave you.”
    For a moment Curtis didn’t look up, instead he continued to look at the car in his hand. Then he dropped the car, looked up and smiled the most rewarding smile Willem had ever seen.
    â€œCome here,” Willem said, and took Curtis in his arms. “I love you.”
    â€œHow much?” Curtis’s muffled voice asked.
    Willem released Curtis and threw his arms as far apart as he was able. “This much!”
    â€œThat big much. I love you this much in the whole world,” Curtis said, also throwing his chubby arms out wide. Willem grinned, wishing all love was so easy to find.

04.
    Nervous. Willem didn’t understand it. They’d known each other since they were five, and now after almost thirty years of friendship he was nervous at the prospect of Jake arriving. It was patently absurd to the Nth degree.
    The evening thus far, despite the brief interlude at his mother’s, had been enjoyable enough, spending time with Curtis for an hour before the kid was too tired to play anymore, he’d got a response from Ste who said things were cool and he hoped Willem would have things sorted by the next time they caught each other, Willem replied saying that after tonight things would indeed be sorted, one way or another, since Jake was coming over after he’d been to see Amy. That Jake was not arriving too soon was okay by Willem, since it gave him time to get a call in to Charlie.
    Willem felt quite encouraged once the call had ended, since Charlie agreed that telling Jake was a good thing. If nothing else it would show Willem once and for all where they all stood, although Willem was absolutely convinced he knew how Jake would take the news. But Charlie wasn’t as sure; in his mind people often surprised you when you least expected, and from what Willem had told him about his relationship with Jake, Charlie was certain Willem was going to be surprised. Willem couldn’t agree, since he knew Jake better and his mind was quite narrow about these things, and besides he read too many crazy stories in the papers about weirdoes on the net to be happy about this.
    The call closed on Charlie wishing Willem luck, and getting Willem to promise to keep his own mind open. Leave the preconceptions at the door, and see what happened. Willem said he’d do his best.
    And so here was he, sitting on his favourite chair, nerves playing havoc with his system, his eyes darting from the TV to the bay window at every blurred person who walked past. It was nuts, one of his favourite shows was on but he would never have been able to answer a pop quiz about it should one be posed, since his attention was “a where that is else,” as Jake would have put it. As his eyes continued to shift between TV and window, his mind played through every possible scenario it could have conceived, and none of them ended well.
    The vibration of his phone in his pocket scared the living shit out of him. He pulled it out, laughing at his own stupidity, to see it was a text message from Jake. He was ten minutes away, so the kettle needed to go on. For a moment Willem stared at the empty screen, uncertain as to how he ought to respond. He didn’t want Jake to suspect something was up, but by the same token he didn’t want to seem too casual either. Willem settled for a “rightio” and wandered into the kitchen.
    The water boiled and he pulled two mugs out of the cupboard. He stared at the mugs. His hands seemed so far away from his body, and for the life of him