RWC #44

MEETING

Max couldn't stand those big, fearful eyes a second longer.  They tore into his soul and ripped him apart.  He swallowed to keep his own tears at bay as he tried to decide what to do.  He hadn't known till that morning, when the package with the letters, legal documents, and pictures had arrived, who this forlorn and frightened little boy belonged to, and when he had discovered it, the weight of the world had pressed in on him. An elephant on his chest would have been a far lighter burden, and the pain much less intense.

He watched as the little boy's eyes welled up, and his pudgy fingers tightened on the ancient railing. He understood the panic that the child must be feeling as they stared at each other.  Why would anyone want to hurt this child?  How could they bring themselves to even attempt it?  Didn't they know who he was?  Didn't they know that he protected the weak, the innocent, and those who couldn't protect themselves?  Didn't they know that he protected his own?  He shook 

"Randy?"  He made his voice as low and non-threatening as he could, but the rusty-nail-on-concrete quality could not be hidden.  Grown men shivered when he spoke, he knew, even when he spoke without anger or threat.  What must he sound like to this innocent?  He was not surprised when the boy did not answer.

"Randy, I know you don't know me, son, but..."  He paused.  How in the name of God was he supposed to say this?  Who in the hell would ever have believed it? Out of nowhere, Darth Vader's dark, angular mask floated into his internal line of vision.  He smiled, hoping that he didn't look like a wild tiger snarling at his prey.

"Randy," he began again, "I am your father."

There, he'd said it.  Not that it made a difference to the cowering child, but at least it had been broadcast to the air, it had been released, given its freedom.  It could never be taken back.  

Randy watched him, and Max could see the emotions warring in him.  He was only three, and he really didn't understand that the reason he was clinging to that old iron railing like a lifeline was that he needed his dad to be there to protect him from the bad men who had been plaguing his life for the last six months.  He didn't realize that he needed to be loved by a man who would show him how to be a man himself one day.  He didn't know he mattered now more than he ever had before. He didn't know Max.

He didn't know...but he would.

Copyright © 2010 by Teri K D Bannerman

For others, visit here: Challenge #44