Chapter 37: North and Carolina

A year passed with all involved settled in a comfortable equilibrium: six Baileys, three Soares, and two Santos in two houses of three bedrooms each. The most uncomfortable situation was Abel’s; he was sleeping in the living room of the house that used to belong to Bea Soares.

But change was coming. First, it was occasional, progressing to weekly. Carolina was spending her evenings away from home. Abel was being asked to be responsible for Fernanda, Diego, and Danilo. Of course, Nan was the same age as Abel and didn’t need supervision. But the boys, verging on 11, were often rowdy and disrespectful towards Abel, even though he made only a few attempts to corral or control them.

Finally, Abel reached his limit.

“Nan, this isn’t working, and you know why. I’m going to take my sleeping bag and get away from all this. I’m tired, I’m not sleeping, and I should be studying for the S.A.T.s so I can go to college. Just tell my mother why I left.”

“But, Abel, what—”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. I’ll see you at school on Monday.”

Tired of talking, he walked through the connecting door into the garage, pulled his sleeping bag and a plastic ground sheet from the shelves, and walked away. It was 8 o’clock, and he was out of sight after 20 – 30 paces, as their neighborhood did not have street lights and the moon had not yet risen.

Diego wandered into the kitchen about 25 minutes later.

“Where’s Abel?”

“He left. You little shits have driven him away. Get out of my sight!”

He had never seen this kind of expression on her face. Alarmed, he grabbed his twin, pulled him into their bedroom, and shut the door.

Later, Carolina walked into the kitchen in a happy mood following another excellent date with her new boyfriend, Peter North. But that mood evaporated when she found Fernanda in the kitchen nursing a cup of hot cocoa, and looking up at her with a stricken, tear-stained face.

“Abel’s gone; he left!”

“He left? Where did he go? Why? What happened?”

“Those two little assholes finally got to him, and he snapped. Instead of hurting them, he decided to leave. He took his sleeping bag and walked away about an hour and a half ago.”

“Because they were being little brats?”

“Yes. And when I called Leah, I found out that he didn’t go stay with the Baileys. He just disappeared. He’s probably out in the woods somewhere where he can be alone and get some sleep.”

“Sleep? He hasn’t been sleeping?”

“Carolina, he’s your son, and you don’t know what’s going on with him. He’s your unpaid babysitter while you’re out on dates. Have you thought about that?

“I’m worried about him, and I don’t know what to tell Val. If she knew he had gone off into the night like this, she would be crying her eyes out. There’s nothing we can do for Abel tonight. In the morning, I’m going to the Baileys. You stay here with the two monsters in case he walks back home.

“Val and I will go out into the woods and look for him. I think we will be able to convince him to stay with the Baileys instead of out in the woods. After that, it will be on YOU to fix your relationship. There are already too many orphans among us.”

“Orphan? He’s not an orphan!”

“If he cuts off ties with you, he will be. He’s convinced that you don’t care about him anymore. Oh, I see that that stings you. It should. When I lost my mother, my world crumbled. You know about my father; he’s not involved.

“What about Abel’s father? Val would be bereft, but maybe he could go have a loving home with his dad.”

“No, his father died when Abel was just a toddler. And his family blamed me, unjustly, for his death. They refused to have anything to do with Abel or with me. Abel and I have to reconcile; there’s no alternative.”

“Then you know what you have to do. That is, if we can get him to stay at Val’s house.”