Part 25 (1/2)
Nathan gave her his widest smile.
”It's a miracle! They've been fixed!” She threw her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. ”Nathan, I'm your grandmother!”
”My grandmother?”
Helena hugged him again, then took Nathan by the hand and led him into her living room. A man sat on the couch, reading a newspaper. ”Martin! This is Nathan! And he's no longer a physical deviant!”
”Isn't he a bit young?”
”I was frozen,” Nathan explained.
”It's a miracle!” Martin set his newspaper aside, got up off the couch, and gave Nathan a hug. ”We could never have antic.i.p.ated that you'd grow up to be such a fine young man!”
”It's hard to imagine that we told your mother and father to suffocate you,” said Helena.
”You told them to...suffocate me?”
”Well, that or some other humane means of extermination. But you were a monster back then.”
”I think I'm going to leave now,” said Nathan.
TWENTY-FIVE.
Would he ever find them?
Nathan started to think that he should stop trying. Was he wasting his life with this fruitless search? What if they weren't even happy to see him? What if they said ”You're the obnoxious biting boy who sent us to the Poor House!” and formed a mob to chase after him with pitchforks and torches?
It was a risk he'd have to take. He couldn't stop searching. If nothing else, he had to tell them he was sorry for all of the misery he'd brought them.
He walked and walked.
Literally thousands of people would later report having spoken to a sad little boy, but none of them knew how to find the women he was searching for. Some were kind and offered to drive him around, or gave him food, and some even let him sleep in their backyards for the night, and he thanked them, yet he started to wonder if perhaps Penny and Mary were trying not to be found.
n.o.body knows for sure how long Nathan traveled, or how many steps he took, but it was a very long time, and a great many steps. Sometimes he felt as if he were almost there, and other times he felt as if he were wandering in circles and wouldn't reach his destination until he was a powdery skeleton.
And then, one day, as he wandered into the town called Final Pa.s.s, things felt right.
He remained cautiously optimistic, because of course this feeling hadn't worked out for him the last time, but his heart raced and his pace quickened and he knew-he knew-that this was where the sisters lived.
A man dressed in rags stood on a street corner. Nathan hurried over to him. ”Sir! Do you know if two ladies, one named Penny and one named Mary, live in this town?”
The man furrowed his brow and rubbed his chin. ”They do, in fact. In a humble but well kept house at the far end of town, with a lovely garden from which I steal radishes.”
Nathan forced himself not to get too excited. After all, he'd been fortunate enough not to have his hopes lifted and then crushed by finding women who shared the names of Penny and Mary but were not the Penny and Mary that he was looking for, and such a thing was bound to happen sooner or later. But the man in rags gave him directions, and Nathan ran the entire way.
There it was. A small house, with neatly mowed gra.s.s and a beautiful garden. A pie cooled on the window sill. Nathan closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Apple. His favorite.
His stomach churned. What if it wasn't them?
It had to be.
He looked both ways to make sure n.o.body was watching, and then crept up to the window and peered inside.
It was the same bookcase!
Mary, eleven years older but still beautiful, walked into the room, holding a sandwich on a plate. She didn't see Nathan. He knew that he should duck. After being gone this long, he shouldn't have their reunion start with them catching him peeking through their window like a criminal, but he couldn't bring himself to look away.
As Mary sat down on the couch and took a bite from her sandwich, Penny came in and sat down next to her. It was them! They were both okay! They both looked happy!
Nathan knew that it was time to let them know he was right there, but what should he say? What words could best express his elation after reaching the end of such a long journey? He'd always imagined it with hugs and laughter and tears of joy, yet he'd never worked out exactly what he'd say.
Did anything need to be said? Maybe his smile, his smile without fangs, was enough.
Penny patted the couch cus.h.i.+on, and a little boy ran into the room and sat down next to her.
He looked slightly younger than Nathan. Black hair. Brown eyes. His resemblance to Penny was unmistakable.
No. It couldn't be.
And then a man walked into the room. He also had a sandwich. He sat down on a recliner, and the four of them began to eat their lunch, happily talking.
Nathan ducked.
He crouched beneath the window, trembling. It wasn't fair. He'd come all this way, searched this long, and the whole time Penny had a child of her own.
She didn't need Nathan.
He should have stayed in the orphanage. Stayed frozen in the block of ice. He brought nothing but tragedy to others. Jamison would still be alive if it weren't for him. He was better off just wandering into the woods and never coming out.
He stood back up and carefully peeked through the window.
They all looked happy.
Like a real family.
Even if they would take him back, Nathan couldn't return. They deserved to go on with their lives, not be stricken by whatever misery he would bring with him.
He stared longingly through the window for a few moments more, and then walked away.