The Soldier's Redemption

“Yeah!” Leo’s voice was loud and excited. “I know we can do it, Mom.”

“Hey, Leo,” Finn said, “I don’t know the dog’s name. She needs a new one. Maybe the other kids at camp could help you pick one out.” Actually, the former owners had told Finn the dog’s name. It was a common curse word. Even now, thinking of their nasty laughs as they’d dumped the eager, skinny, blind-and-deaf dog at the ranch, his mouth twisted.

“Okay!” Leo said as they pulled into the church parking lot. “I’ll ask them what we should name her!” He unfastened his seat belt as soon as the truck stopped, clearly eager to get on with his day.

“Wait a minute,” Kayla warned Leo as he reached for the door handle. “I need to take you in, and we have to walk on the lines in the parking lot. It’s for safety. The teacher told me when I talked to her.”

“I’ll be here,” Finn said as Kayla got nimbly out of the truck and then opened the back for Leo to jump down. They walked toward the building holding hands, Leo walking beside her, moving more slowly as they got closer.

Watching them reminded him of dropping off his son.

He couldn’t make a practice of getting involved with Kayla and Leo, he told himself sternly. It hurt too much. And it gave his heart crazy ideas about the possibility of having a family sometime in the future.

That wasn’t happening, his head reminded him.

But his heart didn’t seem to be listening.

* * *

Kayla walked out of the church after dropping Leo off at the camp program, her stomach twisting and tears pressing at her eyes.

If only she didn’t have to start him in a new program so soon after arriving in town. But she had to work; there wasn’t a choice about that.

He’ll be fine. He has to grow up sometime.

But he’d looked so miserable.

The lump in her throat grew and the tears overflowed.

To her mortification, two of the other mothers—or maybe it was a mother and a grandmother—noticed and came over. “What’s wrong, honey?” the older, redheaded one asked.

The younger woman came to her other side and startled Kayla by wrapping her in a hug. “Are you okay?”

What kind of a town was this, where complete strangers hugged you when you were sad? Kayla pulled back as soon as she graciously could and nodded. “I just hate...leaving him...in a new place.”

“Gotcha,” the older woman said without judgment and handed her a little packet of tissues. “I’m Marge. Just dropped off my Brenna in the same classroom your boy was in. It’s a real good program.”

Kayla drew in big gasps of air. “I’m sorry.” She blew her nose. “I feel like an idiot.”

“Oh, I know what you’re going through,” the mother who’d hugged her said. “I cried every single day of the first two weeks at kindergarten drop-off.” She patted Kayla’s shoulder. “I’m Missy, by the way. What’s your name? I haven’t seen you around.”

“I’m Kayla. Pleased to meet you.” She got the words out without crying any more, but barely.

“Now, me,” Marge said, “I jumped for joy when Brenna started kindergarten. She’s my sixth,” she added, “and I love her to pieces, but it was the first time I had the house to myself in fifteen years. I don’t want to give up the freedom come summer, so all my kids are in some kind of program or sport.”

Kayla tried to smile but couldn’t. Leo had gone willingly enough with the counselor in charge, no doubt buoyed up by the prospect of telling the other children he was getting a dog. But as they’d walked away, he’d shot such a sad, plaintive look over his shoulder. That was what had done her in.

For a long time, it had been her and Leo against the world. She had to learn to let him go, let him grow up, but she didn’t have to like it.

In the past year of starting and running her little business, cleaning houses for wealthy people, she’d paid attention to how they cared for their kids. Lots of talking, lots of book reading. That had been easy for her to replicate with Leo.

A couple of the families she’d really admired had given their kids independence and decision-making power, even at a fairly young age. That was harder for Kayla to do, given how she and Leo had been living, though she could see the merits of it. “Maybe I should go back in and check on him,” she said, thinking aloud.

“Don’t do it,” Missy advised. “You’ll just make yourself miserable. And if he sees you, he’ll get more upset.”

“He’ll be fine.” Marge waved a hand. “They have your number to call you if there’s anything wrong. Enjoy the time to yourself.”

One of the other mothers, a tall, beautifully made-up blonde, drifted over. “Some of us are going to Flexible Coffee for a bit,” she said to Kayla. “I noticed you’re new. Want to come?”