One Of A Kind Dad. Daly Thompson

thing that could have happened to him, because there, at last, he’d found a family.

      He and two other boys, Mike and Ian, discovered they had the same goal, to leave their unhappy pasts behind and become law-abiding and productive citizens. Slowly but surely, he’d learned to trust them. The three formed a strong bond, and when they were released from the facility they became “brothers,” changing their surnames to Foster, and set out to change their lives.

      Knowing he had people he could trust absolutely had been the turning point in Daniel’s life. It had led him to taking in foster children—he had that one thing he could teach them, that in him they had someone they could trust, and that trust could eventually extend to other people, too.

      So far, each of his foster kids had come to do that. And someday Nick would, too. But when? How could Daniel break through the boy’s silence? Weekly visits to a psychiatrist hadn’t worked any better than Daniel’s own efforts.

      Nick didn’t want to be found by his real parents, and that told Daniel the whole story.

      When the boy’s eyes closed in spite of his attempts to stay awake, Daniel went back to his own room and fell into bed, emotionally drained, to struggle with his own nightmares.

      “WE’RE GOING TO BE FINE, honey. I know it’s scary to leave home for a new place, but I wouldn’t bring you here if I didn’t know it was the right thing to do, would I?” Lilah Jamison slid a sidelong glance at her son. Jonathan was scrunched down in the passenger seat, looking smaller and younger than usual, scared to death by this sudden upheaval.

      Was it the right thing to do? She had $290, three-quarters of a tank of gas to get her from Whittaker, her hometown in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, to Serenity Valley, many miles south, a cooler packed with the contents of her refrigerator and not even an inkling of what she would do to support the two of them. But they’d be safe there. She’d researched every corner of Vermont before deciding that Serenity Valley was the perfect place to hide.

      She had to hide, had to protect Jonathan and herself from her ex-husband, Jonathan’s father. He’d been imprisoned for defrauding investors who’d trusted in him. Only a few people knew he’d also abused her. And now he was being released from prison. She’d been the one to blow the whistle on him, and she knew he was going to come after her as soon as he had the opportunity. Her muscles tightened, and her hands balled into fists on the steering wheel.

      “Where will we live?” Those were the first words Jonathan had spoken in the past hour.

      “We’ll start by finding a special, secret place to park the car and set up housekeeping,” Lilah said in a conspiratorial whisper.

      “Are we hiding out from the bad guys?” Jonathan turned toward her for the first time, looking interested.

      She couldn’t tell him the only “bad guy” in their lives was his father. She said, “Hmm. I was thinking we’d be more like The Boxcar Children.” It was one of his favorite books. She hoped it would conjure up a positive image in his mind, even if it was less exciting than escaping from “the bad guys.” “As soon as I get a job, we’ll find a real house.”

      Or a one-room apartment like the one they’d lived in after she’d sold their three-bedroom cottage in Whittaker and used the money to pay off Bruce’s remaining debts.

      “What kind of work will you look for?”

      “Well, I used to be a nurse,” she reminded him. “Then, when you came along, I stayed home with you and did your father’s bookkeeping.” She could hardly bear to say the words. “And you know what I’ve been doing the past three years.”

      “Home care,” Jonathan said. “For a nice, old lady.”

      “So I can look for several kinds of jobs. And you’ll like your new school,” she went on. “I just know it, because you make friends easily and you’re a great soccer player.”

      “Yeah.” He sighed. “Are we almost there?”

      “The exit’s coming up now. We’ll take Route 30 for a few miles, and then we’ll start looking for our hideout.”

      DANIEL WASN’T A CHURCHGOER himself, but he firmly believed in Sunday school for children. The boys griped and dragged their feet sometimes, but many of their best friends were kids they’d met at the Churchill Congregational Church, where they learned more about kindness than they did about any particular religion.

      He’d finally herded the four of them, their hair still damp from showering and a few hands undoubtedly still sticky from pancake syrup, into the van. “Are we gonna have breakfast at the church?” Will asked.

      “You just had breakfast,” Daniel said, glancing into his rearview mirror to catch the eleven-year-old’s eyes. “Seven pancakes, I think. A personal best.”

      “I know,” Will said, “but sometimes they have real good stuff.”

      “I should hope so,” Daniel said. “If you guys were ever ready in time to get there thirty minutes early, instead of eating breakfast at home in ten…”

      “Yeah, yeah.” Mutters came from the backseat. Daniel smiled. Kids who arrived thirty minutes before Sunday school began were served a hot breakfast. It had been his idea, and he still supported it financially. So much poverty existed in and around Churchill that he’d thought it would be a valuable service to the community. Besides, he owed the church something in return for suffering through an hour a week with his unruly gang. The program had been a big success.

      As he pulled into the yard, he saw a small car, many years old, parked at the curb well away from the entrance to the building. It was dusty, as all Vermont cars were after negotiating the dirt farm roads into the town center, but otherwise it looked as if it had been well cared for.

      A woman sat at the wheel, probably waiting for one of the children the breakfast program was intended to benefit. He could see little of her, just blond hair hiding her face as she bent over the steering wheel, reading, maybe, or just resting. His boys had already tumbled out of the van and gone on their way to rattle the cages of their long-suffering teachers.

      Daniel thought about going to speak to her, offering to drive her child home after Sunday school so she wouldn’t have to wait, but he decided against it. If she’d wanted company, she’d have gone into the church for the adult class.

      Besides, he had a whole hour to himself, and what was he going to do with it? What any normal, virile, macho man would do. Go to the grocery store.

      LILAH SAW THE CHILDREN begin to stream out of the church and looked anxiously for Jonathan. When she saw him, he was in deep discussion with a freckled redheaded boy about his age. Her muscles tightened. What she hated most about her situation was that she and Jonathan had to lie about themselves. But what if someday he forgot?

      She got out of the car. She had to end the conversation before Jonathan became too chatty. When he saw her, he gave the other boy a wave and came running toward her, his eyes bright. She forced a big smile. She had to calm herself down—she couldn’t start quizzing him about his conversation right away. “Did you have fun?” Lilah asked as they pulled away from the curb.

      “Yeah.” Jonathan looked happy.

      “How was breakfast?” As she’d searched the grocery store bulletin board for job possibilities the day before, she’d seen a flyer inviting children to come for “breakfast and Bible study.” Feeling desperately shy, she’d taken him into the church this morning, where he, to her relief, was greeted warmly.

      “Great. We had pancakes and sausage and chocolate milk.”

      Lilah’s stomach growled. “That does sound good,” she said. She felt terrible about asking someone else to feed her child, but he hadn’t had a hot meal in more than a week.

      “And I made a friend.”

      “Now that is wonderful. What’s his—or her—name?”