The Boy Who Never Cried Wolf

Any way, getting back to our journey, it was about that time that my mother and Devlin had some kind of falling out. It was very different from any of their normal arguments, which usually ended with Devlin hurting someone. This one was eerily quiet with a looming air of uncertainty. We all just walked around on egg shells for the next few days. This strange new silence seemed to terrorize us every bit as much and maybe even more than the more frequent explosive outbursts. At least we knew what was coming with those. But this creepy communication vacuum just kept us guessing. Finally, a few days later the silence was broken. Mom announced that she was leaving Devlin and that she would be taking me, Eli, Sarah and Carson. Nathan and Rebecca would be staying with their father. I could not believe it. We were finally getting out of there. I felt sorry for Nathan and Rebecca, but I was only ten years old and couldn’t even save myself. It killed me to know that they were being left behind with that monster, because I knew very well what was going to be happening to them in our absence. It would probably be even worse for them considering that Devlin’s victim pool had just shrunk by 75%. Nevertheless, within a few days I was saying goodbye to my younger brother and sister, whom I loved very much. We then boarded an airplane in Gulf Port, Mississippi and flew to Florence, Kentucky. I only recently discovered that Devlin had injured mom again and that that was the reason we were leaving. He had thrown her to the ground and kicked her, leaving a horrendous bruise. One of Devlin’s brothers and sister in law were visiting at the time giving my mother the courage to leave him. I did not know any of that at the time, but I didn’t care. I was back at Grandma Kincer’s house and happy to be there. It was not long before Grandma and Grandpa Wischer found out about our arrival and also came calling. We were definitely not the same boys that they had kissed goodbye some five years earlier; now all scruffy and frightened. But they were no less happy to see us. Soon we were riding around on that same old tractor and fishing in that same old pond as though we had never been gone. But we had indeed been gone and those five years were simply lost just as our childhood itself was lost. For now, though, none of that mattered as we spent every minute eagerly reconnecting with all of the family from whom we had been cut off for so long. I felt like the wealthiest and most liberated kid in the world. I really didn’t know what to do with myself.