Forever and a Day

“After my dad left, there were days when my mom was just out of it. Stuart’s family used to feed me. Sometimes they even let me shower at their house, join in special occasions with them. I mean, they weren’t exactly saints but they were there for me during those times when my mom couldn’t be and my dad didn’t want to be. Clyde has had a hard life, like me, but even though he acts dumb he’s actually super smart. If he hadn’t helped me with my school work I would have flunked out of school, I’m certain. And then Evan helped me get a job at his parents’ mechanics store. We learned to fix up bikes together. That’s where my love for them came from. And it kept us out of trouble. It meant I had a skill I could fall back on, a passion I could occupy myself with. A reason not to give in to the temptations of liquor like all the adults around me had. I owe that guy a lot. I owe all of them a lot.”

Emily touched his arm lightly. Daniel spoke so rarely of his parents’ problems with addiction. She always felt closer to him when he did; it was something they had in common.

“So how come you all fell out of touch?” Emily asked softly, curious. If they’d been so bonded in their youth what had caused them to become such infrequent players in one another’s lives?

Daniel looked guilty. “It was me. My fault. I took off.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t judge me, Emily,” he said, looking at her sadly. “I’m a different person now. I don’t do things the same way I used to. But I had to leave. I’d changed my name and gotten a taste of the freedom I needed from my family and my ties to them. So one day I took one of the bikes Evan and I had fixed up and I left.”

“You stole from your best friend?”

Daniel nodded glumly. “And I didn’t tell any of them what I was doing. When I finally got in touch with Stuart he was so angry, saying the police had been informed and everything. I got him to swear to secrecy, to just let the cops know I was safe, that I’d gone of my own accord. Anyway, when Clyde and Evan found out that Stuart knew I was safe and hadn’t told them, it tore the group apart. And typical me, I just avoided it.”

“When did you make up?”

“Well, I came back to Maine seven years ago and took up the carriage house to look after this place as best I could. Whenever I felt brave I would ride back to our hometown and look around for them. I bumped into Stuart, finally, a couple of years ago. We went for a drink and he filled me in on what I’d missed out on. Who was in prison and why, that sort of thing. He said he’d talk to the others for me, see if we could start patching things back together. So over the last few years, here and there, we’ve met up a few times in various combinations for a bike ride or fishing trip, that kind of thing. But never as a group. Never like this. So really this has brought us all back together. I’m really hoping the trip will help us heal.”