Free Bad Son Rising by Julie A. Richman

their stories were interchangeable. The one good thing was, he was in the best shape of his life.
    “Let’s celebrate tonight at the Old Homestead,” Schooner suggested one of their favorite steakhouses that felt like a boy’s club.
    Hitting the showers after his last training session of the day, Zac kept thinking about the letter from CCNY and couldn’t wait to start looking through the course catalogue. With a very thoughtful letter to the Engineering School’s Dean, he had been able to secure a meeting to pick the Dean’s brain about direction and, as he hoped, the conversation led to the Dean committing to keep Zac’s name in mind if any of the coveted slots opened up.
    The whole experience was going to be very different this time. He’d be commuting versus living in a dorm and that would pull out the whole social aspect of college life for him. No Liz, no Brian, no Tara. He was alone in the equation now, and focusing on his engineering courses was going to be his whole life. His feelings of ambivalence kept wavering between excitement at his fresh start to sadness that he wouldn’t be enjoying his upper classmen years with his friends.
    Stepping out of the shower, he grabbed a towel and as he began to dry off, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His usual athletic build had become so much more defined, his muscles forming hard sinewy planes. He looked good, better than he ever had. I look so normal, he thought, for a moment saddened by the fact that his relationships outside of friendships were anything but normal, but he swept that thought out of his consciousness.
    He was in New York now. A city with eight million people. And they didn’t know him. He had no past. No history. Zac Moore, engineering student, from a wealthy California family, heir to the L9 Health & Entertainment Centers fortune. That was all anyone would know. The rest of the canvas was his to paint. The thought was liberating.
    As he entered his father’s office, a dark haired man in a suit was sitting across the desk from Schooner. His back was to the door.
    “Zac, come on in,” he motioned to his son. “You remember Dr. Castillo, don’t you?”
    “Yes, we met at the wedding.” Zac extended his hand to the older man who rose from his chair. Lily’s dad was the first thought that crossed his brain.
    “Berto is on his way home to California, he just flew in from Africa.”
    Zac assumed Dr. Castillo had been visiting the physical therapy center that he and his dad had established in Zambia and hoped his father didn’t use this as another opportunity to try and talk to him about going over there to do grunt work for the doctors.
    “A long trip from the Congo.” Berto looked wasted from the travel.
    “The Congo?” Zac was surprised. Were they putting up another clinic?
    “It’s a long story. Let’s just say that daughter of mine will be the death of me.”
    Schooner chuckled, “That’s how I feel about this one.” He tilted his head toward Zac with a smile. “Why don’t you fill us in on Liliana’s latest exploits over dinner? Zac and I were going to the Old Homestead to celebrate his acceptance to the Grove School of Engineering.” And with an assumptive close, “let me change the reservation to three people.”
    Zac stood there speechless. Lily wasn’t at Yale? She was in the Congo? Just hearing the sound of her name made his heart race. He couldn’t wait to hear every detail of her father’s trip.
    “Engineering school, that’s quite impressive,” Berto was congratulating him and although Zac was responding appropriately, he didn’t hear the words.
    Nearly two years later and just the thought of Liliana Castillo still profoundly affected him. What was it about that girl?

    “You actually got to Zambia and she wasn’t there?” Schooner had a bemused look on his face as he sipped his scotch, leaning back in the wooden slat chair. Turning to Zac, he laughed, “That sounds like something you would