Page 4 of Peach Tree Family

"Those two rooms don't have any light," Seth said in a much kinder voice. "We can all just stay out here. Me on this side. You guys..."

Theo didn't let him finish. "This is our house. You don't get to invite yourself to any part of it."

"I was just suggesting a solution," Seth said.

Theo took a deep breath. He had no way of making him leave. He couldn't call the sheriff unless he wanted to bring trouble to himself. He had no cards to play. "You're gone in the morning," Theo said, capitulating.

Ace was happy and Seth looked relieved. Theo was far from happy. He couldn't believe the position he found himself in. He hoped this wasn't an indication of the kind of luck he could expect.

Resigned to their unwelcome guest, Theo now took a good look at the living room. It was sizable with a fireplace in the center of one wall. Under the narrow windows there was a built in bookshelf. Theo could picture it lined with all of his grandfather's books, but there wasn't even one book left there now.

"Let's go look at those rooms," Theo said and Ace came along eagerly.

It was like Seth said. Theo had to use a flashlight to have a look at two empty rooms that had to be bedrooms. In one bedroom, the window was broken and boarded up tight. So far they only came across old signs of people crashing there. Unfortunately, the bathroom was so dirty it was unusable.

They would have to relieve themselves outdoors and sleep in the living room, sharing the space with a stranger. Of course Theo had no intention of closing his eyes even for a moment, much less sleeping. He just wished he had gotten some sleep on the bus.

He and Ace got their stuff from outside, and Theo got out the peanut butter switches he packed and a juice box for Ace.

"What if Seth is hungry?" Ace asked.

"I'm all right," Seth said but Theo didn't believe him. He noticed the corners of his mouth turn down miserably. The guy was hungry.

"We can spare a few of these," Theo told him as he got out two packages of crackers sandwiched with orange cheese and threw them to Seth.

Catching them, Seth thanked him then ate them slowly like he wanted to make them last. He had an old, banged up thermos and drank from it. "Just water," he said to Ace who did look like he was wondering what was in there.

"I thought it was hot chocolate," Ace admitted.

"You can put other things in a thermos, not just hot chocolate," Theo told him, but Ace clearly thought that was wrong.

It was getting dark now, and Theo switched on the camping lantern he had brought with them. Ace was warm in his sleeping bag, so Theo turned his attention to Seth. "How did you get here? Hitched?"

"No. It's dangerous," Ace objected before Seth could answer.

"I didn't hitch," Seth told him. "I got a ride from this lady I know who sells at the farmer's market then I walked. I only stumbled on this place by accident. And the padlock was already broken. I didn't do that."

Theo didn't know why, but he actually believed him.

Ace shared with him his version of how they got there. "We walked a long, long way through a forest."

"We just walked from the bus stop up the road," Theo said.

"I cut across this way to get off the road. I was getting some funny looks," Seth said. "When I saw the house, it looked abandoned so I...?

"It's not abandoned. It's our house," Ace said.

"Time for you to go to sleep," Theo told him.

As Theo was getting him settled in his sleeping bag, Ace complained, "I have a sleeping bag, but no one else has a sleeping bag."

"That's OK, You're a kid," Theo told him but Ace still wasn't happy.

"It's not fair."

Theo eyed Seth and warned him, "You'll need to stick to that side of the room, and I don't want to see you up for any reason."

"I'll stay put," Seth told him. He only looked a little offended, but also like he understood.

"The light stays on," Theo said, and he turned down the camping lantern to make sure it lasted.

"It won't keep me up," Seth said and that turned out to be the truth. He was asleep almost as fast as Ace. That left Theo to watch over Ace and watch Seth.

Alert for even a hint of trouble from him, Theo did his best not to see any beauty in the sleeping man, not to admire the angular lines of his face or to wonder what it would be like to kiss his mouth.

---