Free A Summer Romance by Tracey Smith Page B

enough
that she could see his face. She reached over and placed her hand
on his leg.
    “Start at the beginning,” she suggested
softly.
    “I was twelve when my father died,” Aaron
began, his voice monotone. “My sister Katelyn was eight. People
always said how much I looked like him. I guess that’s why my
mother couldn’t stand to look at me anymore after he was gone. She
began drinking all the time to deal with the depression. I’m not
sure if she had a problem before that, if she did I never knew
about it. But after Dad was gone she was lost in a bottle.
    “I stayed away as much as I could. I thought
it was better for everyone if I just wasn’t around. My mother sure
didn’t seem to mind. But I never even considered what I’d left
Katelyn to deal with.” His voice cracked and Maggie wanted to tell
him that he didn’t have to relive these painful memories. Not for
her. But she realized that maybe he needed to do it for himself.
She sat quietly by his side as he sorted through his emotions.
    “She remarried when I was fourteen, and for
just a minute I’d hoped Bill would be good for her.” He laughed
without humor. “He wasn’t.”
    His eyes clouded over with painful memories.
Maggie could see it on his face and wanted to stop him, wanted to
tell him that he didn’t have to go on.
    “I never should have left Katelyn alone in
that house,” he continued angrily.
    “You were just a boy yourself.” Maggie spoke
softly trying to console him. He shook his head vehemently.
    “I was the only one left to protect her and
I just left her there!” he argued as he jumped up from the couch
and began pacing in front of her. His sadness had turned to rage,
she could feel it radiating off of him.
    “She was only ten years old,” he said as he
held his head in his hands. His anger slowly shifted to back
sorrow. He walked over to the window and stared into the dark
night.
    “I hadn’t been home for about a week. It was
the longest I’d stayed away.” His voice was quiet as he continued.
“Katelyn came to me the first night I’d returned home and asked if
she could sleep in my room. I could tell something was wrong. She
wouldn’t tell me what it was but I saw that she was scared.
    “I came home every day after that, straight
from school. I’d always find her in the front yard waiting for me.
She pretended she was just playing outside, but I could see the
relief on her face every time I came home. She was like my shadow,
sticking by my side everywhere I went, sleeping in my room every
night.
    “As the week wore on I saw her become a bit
more relaxed, a little less jumpy than she had been before. But
Bill was becoming increasingly agitated. He didn’t like me being
around.” Aaron grew silent for a few minutes and Maggie wasn’t sure
if he was going to continue. She stood from the couch and stepped
up beside him at the window. She placed her hand tenderly on his
arm.
    “Bill picked a fight with me,” Aaron
continued in the same monotone that he’d started with. “He accused
me of doing disgusting things with my little sister. Asked me why
she was sleeping in my room every night. He kept pushing and
pushing until I lost my temper. I hit him. I realize now that’s
what he wanted. He used that as an excuse to kick me out of the
house. I saw the terror in Katelyn’s eyes the moment he told me to
go, and my suspicions were confirmed.
    “My mother took his side, believed the lies
he told. She told me to leave and never come back. Katelyn was
crying, begging me not to go. But what choice did I have?” He
looked at Maggie desperately as if she might hold the answer to
that question, one that had obviously been haunting him for years.
She had none, so she remained silent.
    “I left like they wanted. But I didn’t go
far. I couldn’t leave her. I stayed in the woods behind the house
and watched. When the lights went out I snuck back into the house
through a broken kitchen window.
    “My father’s shotgun