Only Child(87)

“It’s OK, Mommy,” I said.

“No. It’s not OK, honey. You were feeling so alone that you ran away to be with your brother at the cemetery. And I didn’t realize you were gone for…quite some time. That was not OK.”

“It’s because you’re feeling a lot of pain. Charlie told me that today,” I said.

“Wait,” Mommy said.

“What?” Daddy said. They both stared at me, and right away I was sorry I said that, because now I got worried that I would get Charlie in more trouble.

Mommy sat up straight. “What does that mean, Zach: Charlie told you that today? How?” I could tell she was getting mad.

Daddy leaned over and covered Mommy’s hand with his hand and he said, “Zach, it’s important that you tell us what you meant by that. OK?”

“But is he going to be in more trouble? He didn’t do anything wrong. He helped me,” I said, and my words were coming out fast.

“How did Charlie help you?” Mommy asked.

“He told me it was time to go home because you were probably worried about me. And he took me home in his car.”

Mommy looked at Daddy, and she let out a long breath very slowly. “You were in Charlie’s car?” she asked.

“Mhmm.”

“You have to give us the full story, buddy,” Daddy said.

“OK. I went to the cemetery because I wanted to find Charlie. I mean, I wanted to visit Andy, too, but mostly I went because of Charlie. I wanted him to come here with me and we could talk to Mommy and make it so that all the fighting could be over. And so that Charlie doesn’t have to go in jail. And Daddy could come back home,” I said.

“You went to the cemetery to find Charlie?” Mommy asked.

“Yes. He goes there every day,” I explained. “He says good night to his son every night there.”

Daddy pressed his lips together and shook his head up and down slowly. “How did you know that?” he asked.

“From the news,” I said. “But he didn’t want to come here.” I started to cry because I did that whole thing, and I tried to be brave and not scared for once, so that I could make everything better, and it didn’t even work. “My mission didn’t work like how I planned it. I wanted you and him to talk, and then you could see that he’s really sorry and he feels bad about what his son did,” I said to Mommy. “And so then you could stop being so mad at him.”

Mommy stared at me for a minute.

“He took you home in his car?” Mommy asked.

“Yes,” I said. “He said I should go home, and I told him I didn’t want to go back home, but then we went anyway. He dropped me off at the middle school bus corner, and I walked the rest of the way. I think he didn’t want to come, because of…because of how mad you are at him.”

“You didn’t want to come back home?” Mommy said. Her words came out quiet, and her nose sounded very stuffy from all the crying. For a while no one said anything, and then Mommy asked, “Do you think you could show me your hideout? I’d really like to see it.”





[ 52 ]


    The Last Secret


“STILL SMELLS LIKE BOY in here,” Mommy said when me and her crawled in the hideout. “Wow, I always forget how big this closet is.”

“Can I join you, too?” Daddy asked from outside the closet, and Mommy said, “OK.”

We all sat down in the back, and it was very smushed with three people, but I didn’t mind it. I liked being in here with Mommy and Daddy. I sat in front of Mommy and leaned back against her, and she put her arms around me. Daddy sat across from us and leaned his back and head against the wall.

“What are those?” Mommy asked, and pointed at the feelings pages.

“Feelings pages,” I said, and I explained to her what they were and why I made them, like I explained it to Daddy when he first came in the hideout.

“Let me see if I still remember which is which,” Daddy said, and we played a game where I quizzed him.

“Black?” I asked.

“Scared.”

“Red?”

“Embarrassed.”

We went through all the colors, and Daddy remembered them all.

“You were feeling a lot of feelings, huh?” Mommy asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“So the white one is for sympathy? Why did you make one for sympathy? That’s a feeling you have?” Mommy wanted to know.

“Me and Daddy came up with that one. Sympathy is the third secret of happiness.”

“The third secret of happiness…?” Mommy asked.

“Yes, remember from the Magic Tree House Merlin missions?” I said.

“Um,” Mommy said.

“Remember I was going to try out the first secret of happiness with you? Pay attention to the small things around you in nature? But then you didn’t have time because you were on the phone.”

“I…I don’t remember that,” Mommy said.

“Zach has been reading about the secrets of happiness, and he wanted to try them out because he felt like we could use them around here,” Daddy said.

“We’re like Merlin,” I told Mommy. “He’s sick from all the sadness, and that’s why Jack and Annie try to find the four secrets of happiness for him, so he can get better. And we’re like sick from sadness, too, because of Andy, so it’s the same, kind of.”