Page 22 of Gone for You

“What’s happening, brother?” Austin says, his voice booming, smile contagious, grip on my shoulder strong. He’s the most upbeat man I’ve ever met. And considering he’s homeless with a wife and four kids, he has every reason to be pretty bummed out and quite frankly, pissed off, most of the time. But he looks on the bright side in every situation. His take on life is what brings me back here week after week, wanting to help and simply spend time with the family. It’s what pulled me in to help the Knights without them asking for it.

I bought this property to build a house on about a year ago but hadn’t gotten the process started. It works for an address they can use for now so they don’t get reported to CPS and their little amount of mail they receive goes to a PO Box in town that I own. They’ve been homeschooling so the boys don’t fall behind and even though living in a camper is far from ideal, they are doing well. They take trips to the local library often and the kids are crazy smart. I’ve never met two more determined people to change their lives than these two or to make their “home” just that… a home.

“Not much, man. Brought someone I’d like you to meet. This is Liv.”

He smiles at Liv and brings her in for a hug. She holds the containers of food out to the side of her while giving me a wide-eyed look. I just shrug, rubbing up and down Hillary’s back. Austin’s a bear of a man, he’s almost 6’4” and despite his living situation and lack of constant meals, a large man. She doesn’t stiffen or recoil at a strange homeless man giving her a hug. She just embraces him like they’ve known each other for years.

He straight up lies through his teeth because he’s never met any of my friends when he says, “Always love to meet a friend of Ethan’s.” Over her shoulder, he gives me a look that says he’s going to be asking me for details later. He’s worse than Samantha.

“Brought more propane and this one here had eyes bigger than her stomach so we brought you some food from the diner.”

She gives me a side rolling eye. Impressive. “It’s true. I got a little nervous and may have ordered enough for ten people.”

Conner is eyeing the containers with a hunger that makes my heart break. I know they’re not starving. I make sure of it and Samantha and Austin would sooner die before any of their kids went hungry, but they don’t get the simple pleasures that going out for a meal brings. I hand them over and he looks thoroughly pleased.

“Go on and bring them inside, you guys can dig in if you want, but your brothers need to come out and say hello before you start.”

“Okay!” He sprints off excitedly.

“The boys haven’t been feeling well the past two days.”

I stand up straighter, wanting to fix it immediately. “What do you mean?”

Samantha waves me off. “It’s nothing to be concerned about. They both have colds and Conner had a slight fever last night but they’ll be fine. We’re watching it.”

“You should have called me.” I try to keep my voice level because I’ve made it clear that they can call me any time of the day and I’ll be there to help. I hate to think the boys were sleeping out here in the cold if they could have been at my place instead. I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place, not wanting to come across as untrusting of their abilities but still offering to help whenever possible.

“Ethan, you do enough for us. Letting us live on your property, constantly bringing us food and all the things we need. We don’t need to trouble you.”

“Stop it. You know I don’t think of it as a trouble.”

Austin turns to Liv, who’s been listening, watching quietly. “You’re probably confused.”

“Just a bit,” she says, closing one eye and holding up two fingers barely apart.

“About four months ago, the house we were living in burned down. We weren’t prepared, didn’t have renters insurance and we lost almost everything, including our jobs when we couldn’t keep up with hours because we were trying to figure out our living situation. Ethan was filling up at the gas station when we coasted into town on fumes. The kids were hungry and crying, Samantha and I were exhausted and had no idea what we were going to do with only about five hundred dollars left to our name.” He looks into the trees beyond their tents. Samantha wraps her arm around him and he does the same, sliding his hand into the back pocket of her jeans. “Ethan here, he wouldn’t take no for an answer and here we are. He’s an angel,” he adds on, teasing, but not really. In his dark moments, when he’s unsure of their next moves or he’s feeling down about not providing for his own family, he’s been brought to tears by my generosity. He and I see it differently. Where they see me as their angel, they don’t see the blessings their family brings to me.

“You give me far too much credit.”

“How about we agree to disagree,” he jokes.

“Wow. I’m so sorry to hear about the fire. I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you.”

“Thank you. It was a scary time but we survived and that’s all that matters.”

Conner comes back with his brothers, neither of them looking like they feel good at all. With the temperatures dropping again to remind us winter hasn’t completely let Michigan out of its grip, and snow coming soon, it makes me nervous and I know I won’t sleep tonight.

I crouch down in front of them both, letting Hillary sit on my bent knee as I get a closer look at the boys. “Not feeling too good, huh boys?”

The second oldest, Levi, shakes his head, sniffs and wipes his nose with his sleeve. Chase coughs, a deep, wet sounding cough. I mentally add a case of Kleenex, extra blankets, another heater, and whatever else they’ll need for cold and flu season to the list of what I’ll bring next week. And Germ-X. Lots and lots of Germ-X.

“Aww, buddy.”

“I’ll be fine,” he mumbles, eyes shifting to look at Liv and back to me.

“Oh! Sorry. Liv, this is Levi and Chase.”

“Hi guys. I’m sorry you’re not feeling well.”

---