Page 141

He smiled and shook his head. "You're right. I would have missed you and your uncle's sauce. Mostly you though."

"I have no idea what the road back is going to be like for either of us, Duncan, but you have to work on it sincerely, and you have to help your mother understand it all as well. You have her to apologize to as well. No mother wants to go through what she just went through."

"Right." He sighed deeply. "I guess I do have to thank you for saving my life," he said. "How did you come to get there in time?"

"I don't know. It just came to me to go there when I didn't find you in the studio."

He nodded at the bandage on my arm.

"You got beat up a bit, too. You have a lot of courage and strength, Alice."

"Maybe, but I can think of about seven million other things I would rather have done and places I'd rather have been," I said.

"What do your aunt and uncle say about it? Are they very upset?"

"My aunt and uncle were very concerned about us both. My aunt spoke with your mother and found out I could visit. She brought me here to see you."

"She did?"

"Again, I'm the last person to give you advice, Duncan, but you have to permit yourself to have a little faith in other people."

"Can you have any faith in me anymore'?"

"It's the only way I can have faith in myself," I replied, and his eyes brightened as he pushed back the medication and the pain.

"Then you're not going to go back to live with your grandparents?"

"There's only one direction for me, for you, Duncan, and that's forward, so pull yourself together and get out of here. I expect to walk into school the first day of class holding your hand."

He smiled again and then looked serious again, even a bit angry.

"I was disappointed in my father dying before I had a chance to confront him."

"You don't know what you would have done, but I think I can guess," I said. "You wouldn't have been so tough and hard on him. You would have seen him as deeply wounded, in his own pain, and as regretful about his life and his end as you could have been for him. He might even have asked for your forgiveness. What would you have done?"

"I don't know."

"I used to resent my father until he revealed his own weakness and failing to me. I couldn't hate him for that." "What about your mother?"

"I don't know. I never had the chance to find out." "Maybe you will."

"Yes," I said. "Maybe I will.",

I rose and went to his bedside. He looked up at me, and I took his hand and just held it for a moment.

"Don't stay here too much longer," I said. "I saw a small leak in the studio kitchen sink faucet."

"Okay. I'll be over as soon as I can."

"Make it sooner," I told him. I kissed him on the cheek and started out.

"Hey," he said.

"What?"

"I still have to help paint your bedroom."

"Frankly, I don't see how you have much time for anything else," I said and left.