Page 6 of String Boys

HAVING THEIRfather back was really the best part of Christmas, Kelly thought.

After Seth ran out of the house and their mother got the girls to bed, Matty and Kelly climbed up onto Daddy’s lap, even though Matty was a little too big, and Kelly probably was too.

But they hadn’t seen him in a week, and he was there, in the apartment. And he’d brought their mother flowers, and she was smiling softly at him.

Oh, they’d missed him.

He’d been there for their soccer banquet and wanted to know all about indoor soccer and if they were going to play again this year.

“Only if we can still walk Seth home after violin practice,” Kelly said staunchly.

“He can’t walk home by himself?” Daddy asked.

“He needs us,” Matty told him, and Kelly let out a little sigh of relief. Matty was the leader. “Other kids will beat him up.”

There was a thump below them, and Kelly and Matty both jumped and hunched their shoulders. “Or maybe not kids,” Matty muttered.

They’d seen Seth’s bruises that one time.

Another thump sounded, and Mom walked back into the living room, wincing. “Oh no,” she said. “Not again.”

She went back into the kitchen and picked up her phone from the charger.

“Wait!” Dad said, standing up. “What are you—”

“Calling the cops,” Mom said, voice low. “He swore the last time it would never happen again, but Seth’s been terrified. He’s obviously drunk again. Maybe they’ll bring CPS in and Craig will stop for good. Or Seth will get put somewhere else. It sucks, but it’s all I can think of!”

“Why don’t you—”

And for the first time since Dad walked in, Mom got that scrunched-up look on her face. “What? Go down and knock on the door so he can belt me too? Not when I’m the only adult home, Xavier!”

Dad looked stricken, then nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I hear you. I’ll go down. I… I might not be back soon. I’ll text you to go down and get the boy if this goes how I think.”

Mom tilted her head. “Where do you think it’s going?” she asked.

“Same place I went,” he replied with a crooked smile. “I was gone for a month, Linda. With a couple of half days off because I asked permission and signed myself out. Twenty-eight days to be exact.” He looked away. “I was going to tell you—”

She stopped him with a kiss. “You really mean it,” she murmured. “You mean it about changing. You never did that before.”

“I mean it. Let me go talk to Seth’s dad, okay?”

She nodded and let him go.

Kelly would wonder later why they weren’t scared when he walked out the door. He texted Mom an hour later and told her to go down and get Seth, that he’d be staying with them for a couple of weeks, and that he’d be back by morning.

But when Kelly’s life had fallen apart again and again, he’d remember his father walking into a potentially dangerous situation, just assuming he’d be back. Because that’s what people who loved you did, right? They came back.

Well, they did that night.

AND WHENthey woke up, Seth was asleep on the couch. He spent that Christmas with them and helped bake cookies and decorate, helped watch the twins. He didn’t go back to his own place until after they started school again, after he started playing the violin again.

After school, Matty and Kelly would join him for practice and then walk him home. Sometimes they’d go to indoor soccer practice, and Seth would play the violin alone in his apartment until it was time to come upstairs for dinner.

And sometimes, Kelly would have to watch the twins with Matty, because Mom needed to work.

But sometimes, Kelly would sneak downstairs, just to listen to Seth. When they played together as string boys, Seth was still a lion and Kelly still played like a goat.

But Kelly loved to see Seth being a lion.