Page 61 of Second Start: Family
“No, no, no. You said. Yousaid.”
Hall made eye contact with Kenzie over his son’s head. She communicated that she didn’t know what Bobby meant, either, with the barest shake of her head.
He looked at his daughters. “He’ll be okay now. You girls go ahead, have your fun.”
“But, Bobby…”
“It’s okay. I’ll take care of him. And Kenzie will.”
Lizzie looked from one to the other of them. Molly made up her mind faster. She patted Hall’s hand. “Okay, Daddy. C’mon, Lizzie.”
They held hands as they went back into the schoolhouse.
Hall moved around to make eye contact with his son. “What did I say, Bobby?”
His words came muffled from his face pressed against Kenzie and interrupted by hiccupping sobs. “Mommy. Mommy not coming back. I see her, then I not come back.”
Kenzie’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh, Bobby. We wouldn’t let it happen that you didn’t come back.”
He sucked in another sob. “Still see Crafty and Benji and Molly and Lizzie?”
“Yes. Absolutely. And your daddy and Dan.”
He raised his head slightly. “But he said…”
“Dan said—?” Hall started.
She shook her head at him. Giving him apay attention to what I say nextlook.
“I know he did, Bobby. But you see, when Evan—” She emphasized the name for Hall’s sake. “—said that, he was talking about the make believe that we’re doing here. Like your daddy said, acting like people do on TV.”
“All the people on TV?”
“Not all the people.” How did she navigate this? She sure didn’t want to say acting was lying and real people told the truth — especially not consideringrealpeople she’d seen telling whoppers on TV and elsewhere. “But some of the people are telling stories on TV, like stories we read in books.”
She was thinking she wanted to do a lesson on fiction and nonfiction for her students, though that wouldn’t help Bobby in the moment, when he raised his head completely.
“I won’t go away and not come back?” He asked her, but he also turned to Hall now.
“You won’t,” she said.
Hall splayed his hand on the boy’s back. “You won’t,” he confirmed.
“But, Bobby,” Kenzie added, “you also won’t see your mommy while we’re celebrating Halloween. Evan didn’t mean that.”
“I not see her for long time.”
“No, you haven’t,” Hall said.
Bobby turned to him. They seemed to share a long look.
The boy straightened. “Okay. Down. I go with Lizzie, Molly.”
She’d already put Bobby down, but as he started after his sisters in the “Haunted Cabin,” she tried to reach out to take him back.
“He wants to go now, let him. He’ll be okay with them,” Hall said.
He was right. She knew that. To hold him back would only reinforce his fears, yet that protective urge had been so strong.
