Chapter Thirteen
Brandon’s mother wandered into the kitchen just as he finished up the last piece of the pepperoni part of the pizza. She looked terrible. Her hair was standing straight out from her head. Her eye makeup had smeared all down her cheeks. Her face was swollen and red and her nose was huge.
“You want some pizza?” Brandon offered.
His mother dropped into the chair next to him. “No,” she said. And then tears began to come out of her eyes. She didn’t sniffle or sob. She just sat there, staring ahead with those tears running down her cheeks and dripping off her chin.
“My sweet little girl,” she whispered. “My heart is broken.”
Brandon took a long look at his mother. It began to dawn on him that, for his mother, this was very real. He’d never seen her look like this. He’d never heard her sound like this.
“Would you feel the same way,” he heard himself asking, “if it’d been me who got lost?”
She didn’t answer for a moment. Then she turned her head and looked at him. “How could you ask me that?” she said, her voice sounding scraped and raw. “Don’t you know how much I love you?” Then her face melted and she dropped her head down onto her arms, sobbing onto the table.
Brandon’s father came shuffling in. He didn’t look much better. He had big circles under his eyes. But instead of being sad, he was angry. “I can’t believe we went to bed,” he said. “Our little girl is out there somewhere, maybe in the rain, alone, scared, and we went to bed. Why would we do that? Why would we do such a stupid thing?”
Brandon was feeling very uncomfortable. He put a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he said to her. “I’m sure Glory’s okay. I know she is. We’ll find her. In fact—” He screwed his face up tight and announced, “I wish she wasn’t lost anymore. I wish she was back home again.”
His father was staring at him. “That’s big of you, Brandon,” he said.
“No, really, Dad,” Brandon said. “That’s what I wish.”
“Well, I hope that’s what you’ve been wishing all along,” his father said.
His mother raised her head. “Rudy,” she said, “don’t take it out on Brandon.”
“You treat her like she’s a pest all the time,” his father said to Brandon angrily, “even though the truth is, she follows you around because she thinks you’re the center of the universe. And you told her to get lost.”
“Rudy,” Brandon’s mother said. “How could you say that?”
It was awful. Brandon’s father looked up at the clock. “I have to go to the office,” he said. “I have to check in and let them know what’s going on.”
“No, you don’t,” Brandon’s mother answered. “You could call on the phone.”
“No, I can’t,” his father insisted. “I have to go.” He stalked off down the hall.
“I really do wish she’d come home,” Brandon said to his mother.
“I know you do, dear.” She patted his hand absently.
Brandon had been keeping half an eye on the back door, expecting it to open any second. In fact, he could see the whole reunion in his head, Glory running into the kitchen with her gold hair streaming out behind her, his mother jumping up so quickly, her chair would fall right over backwards—kissing, hugging—and Brandon would sit quietly by, knowing he had brought Glory back, Brandon alone responsible for all that joy and relief.
But the door remained closed. The knob didn’t even turn a little bit.
His mother pushed herself up from the table. “I have never felt so empty in my whole life,” she said. “Whoever is responsible for this is the meanest, most horrible, terrible, heartless person in the entire world.” She started off down the hall. “I think you should go to school, Brandon,” she said sadly. “I think it would be the best thing for you. Just, for heaven sake, don’t talk to any strangers on the way.”
Brandon got up and went to the back door. He opened it and peered out. No Glory in the back yard. No Glory coming up the drive. He opened the basement door and turned on the light, but he wasn’t brave enough to go down the stairs. “Glory,” he whispered, loud as he could.
No answer.
He went and checked her room, thinking she might have been transported right into her bed, that she might be there sleeping right at that moment. But she wasn’t there, either.
That’s when Brandon began to worry.