Seth’s Perspective
The three weeks before Thanksgiving just flew by and I hadn’t thought much about the reunion with my father. I had been laser focused, working my ass off on my psych paper. I had until the end of the semester to turn it in but it was a major part of my grade and I had to meet with the professor before the holiday so he could check my progress. The assignment synopsis provided by the professor was wordy but vague and void of any real substance. We were to choose a social norm (or norms) and challenge it. There were several examples and ideas baked into the one-page document, but there was one line that caught my attention. It read: “you may consider exploring alternatives to social norms such as the gay lifestyle…” It was just a quick mention, a passing example, but it hit me hard when I read it. ‘the gay lifestyle. What the fuck is the gay lifestyle?’ I thought to myself. That statement stuck in my head for weeks before I finally chose a topic and started my paper. Kevin and Randy’s visit had inspired me. I decided to write about the gay lifestyle in contrast to the traditional family of dad as the king of the castle, a stay-at-home mom, and several kids… as I had experienced it. The gay lifestyle that I experienced was Kevin and Randy raising their two children. It was Scotty defending the man he loved by punching my father in the face and breaking his nose. It was twenty-three-year-old Brad and twenty-two-year-old Scotty taking on the raising of three teenage boys to save them from a religious zealot. It was a group of gay friends (some almost strangers) and family coming together as a support system. It was Max, Eric, and Cam experimenting with a three-way relationship. It was Brody choosing to be alone rather than put himself out there to be rejected because he didn’t fit the stereotype. It was Zach’s father having to hide part of himself just to have a family and career. It was Nathan seeing Zach and I openly build a life together two decades later. There was no one way to be gay, yet those looking in from the outside were constantly talking about the “gay lifestyle,” lumping all gays into one category, and judging us by misinformed stereotypes.
My father and the men of his church used to say the words “gay lifestyle” with scorn, disgust, and judgment. I’d heard those words peppered all over society my entire life and just accepted them as something real. Then I read them in the synopsis of my assignment and really gave them some thought. The “gay lifestyle” was diverse and evolving, so I decided to write about my world, my village. I started my project a little late in the year and it would take me the rest of the semester to complete, but my passion for the subject would drive me.
Meanwhile Thanksgiving had snuck up on me, it was less than a week away. Everyone in the duplex would be going their separate ways for the holiday. The throuple was going to Eric’s parents (supposedly as roommates), Zach and I were headed to Arizona for the big event, and Brody was going to stay alone in his studio and paint. I think he was looking forward to the rest of us being gone.
It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving and we decided to get together and have our own “friends-giving.” I hated that term but it was Cam’s idea and it fit. Every stove in the duplex was full, including Brody’s. The turkey was in the first-floor oven, the side dishes in the second-floor oven, and the pies and rolls in Brody’s oven on the third floor. The house was buzzing with activity and smelled amazing! It was Thanksgiving!
Max wasn’t feeling too great, he thought he might be coming down with a cold or something. He kept some distance between him and the rest of us so he didn’t get us all sick before the holiday. But Max keeping his distance seemed to be the norm for him lately. Ever since he told me that he was having doubts about his relationship he’d been a little distant from the guys in the house. He and I talked regularly, but he wasn’t himself when we were all together and he tried to keep some space between him and Brody. He told me he didn’t trust himself around him.
Max was keeping an eye on the turkey as he did homework downstairs, Brody was painting in his loft, and the other guys were out front playing football in the street. I was in our kitchen by myself cooking away with my EarPods in and talking to Scotty. Since the rest of my siblings were only doing this for me, I was in charge of Friday’s meal (it would be my third turkey dinner of the week… I was great with that idea. I fucking loved Thanksgiving dinner). Scotty volunteered to be my legs on the ground in Phoenix making sure I had everything I needed. We went through the menu and the shopping list; I was incorporating a couple of family recipes in hopes of sparking good memories for my siblings. My sisters were both coming without their boyfriends, Eli was coming alone, and Brian was bringing Olivia (his girlfriend). So, the guest list consisted of Dad, mom, all my siblings, Scotty, Zach, and Olivia. I thought about what Zach had said and he was right; he’d be the only one in the room with only positive interactions with my father. That thought made me sad and a reality washed over me; this wasn’t going to be easy.
We had a busy itinerary ahead; Zach and I would get there on Wednesday night and leave Sunday night. We would do our annual giving back to the community volunteering on Thursday morning with dinner at Kev’s after that, then my parents and sisters would arrive on Friday for dinner at Scotty and Brad’s, stay the night and head back to Texas on Saturday. But today was all about our friends. All the guys from the duplex were coming and so were Teddy and Gina.
I was setting the big dining room table in our flat when Gina came in “Hey gurl! Damn it smells good in here, what can I help with?” She said as she dropped her winter coat on the back of one of the kitchen chairs.
“You can help me set the table. Where’s Teddy?” I asked.
“He’s out on the street with the guys playing football” Gina answered as she went to work helping me set the table. “So, what’s up with Max?” She didn’t waste any time getting to the point, she never did.
I just shrugged, “I don’t think he’s feeling great.”
“C’mon, Seth” she said suspiciously, “I talked to him on campus the other day, every time I asked about Cam and Eric, he switched the subject. What’s going on?”
I just kept working and said, “You know me, I stay the hell out of everything, If you wanna pry into their personal lives, ask Max not me.” She shot me a look that could kill, she knew I wasn’t a gossip, but she also knew I had the scoop.
“Fine!” she said in a tone that was a combination of pissed-off and defeated. “So, are you excited to see your mam and dad?” I just let out a sigh and babbled on about my nervousness and mixed emotions. Gina had always been a good sounding board for me. She just listened, and when I was done, she said “You didn’t expect it to be easy did you?”
“No. But I didn’t expect to be the only one who wanted it. My siblings are all dreading it. Other than Zach, the only one who has my back is Scotty and he’s reluctant at best.” I said with a sigh. Gina was a great listener and had good insight, I was lucky to have her as a friend. We talked as we worked and before we knew it Max was yelling up the back steps that he thought the turkey was ready to take out of the oven. I ran down to check it, it was a beautiful golden brown. I took it out of the oven, put it on a tray and brought it upstairs to cool on the counter. Then Gina and I ran up to Brody’s to check on the pies and rolls. The pies were ready and looked awesome, but the rolls were burned to a crisp.
“I was into my painting and totally missed my timer” Brody said. “Sorry.” I just rolled my eyes at him; I had bought some Pillsbury Crescent Rolls as a back-up. Gina and I carried everything down to the second floor, within a few minutes all the food was in our kitchen cooking, cooling, or ready to go. About a half hour later everything was ready to serve. Gina called everyone in while I finished setting-up all the food buffet style on the counters and kitchen table. The room was literally wall-to-wall food.
I heard what sounded like a herd of buffalo coming up the back steps as the guys all ran up, sweaty and dirty from playing football. “Holy fuck, you went all out!” Teddy blurted as he walked in and patted me on the back. Our flat was instant chaos with everyone oohing and ahing over the food as they grabbed their plates and piled it on. One by one everyone took a seat, Max was the last one to join us taking a seat between his boyfriends, I saw him look over at Brody then put his head down. “Shit, this was going to be awkward” I thought to myself. But once we sat down and everyone started talking and stuffing their faces everything seemed fine.
As I looked across the table at all my friends, I realized how damn lucky I was. I had awesome friends and family who supported me. ‘Why do I even need a relationship with my dad?’ I thought to myself, ‘Why am I putting myself and my siblings through this crap? We’ve survived just fine without my father for almost four years’ I was having major doubts. I did my best to get back into the moment and enjoy what was happening at the table. When I looked up, Max was gone. “Where’d Max go?” I asked.
“I think he’s in the kitchen getting more food” Eric said. I looked over at Max’s empty chair and noticed his full plate still sitting there.
“He might be downstairs; he hasn’t been feeling well” Cam said.
I got up and went into the kitchen, he wasn’t there. Gina was in the bathroom so I knew he wasn’t there, so I went down the back stairs to the lower flat to look for him. He wasn’t in the kitchen so I walked through the flat, I didn’t see him, but the door to the middle bedroom was closed, so I knocked. “Max, you in there?” I said through the door.
“Yeah, come in” He said in a weak voice from the other side of the door. “I’m sorry I left, but I feel like shit. I think I’ve got the flu or something.” At first, I thought he was just faking it because he felt awkward with his boyfriends and Brody at the same table. Max knew what I was thinking and said “I swear, Seth. It’s not the other thing” Then he coughed.
“Can I get you anything?”
“If you got some Sudafed or something that would help” He said through his sniffles.
“Yeah, I’ve got some, I’ve got some other stuff too, I’ll be right back.” I ran up to our bathroom to grab the cold meds for Max, then back downstairs. The dining room was loud with laughter and conversation and nobody paid any attention to what I was doing. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and ran down to rake care of Max. I spent about a half hour getting him settled in, he was hurting. The guy had a fever, his eyes were watering, his throat was sore, his nose was running and he was coughing up a storm, but I finally got him comfortable, shut off the lights, shut the door and went back upstairs. When I got to the kitchen, I was shocked to see that Zach had rallied everyone to clean up and do the dishes, Damn I loved that man.
“Is Max okay?” Cam asked.
“Yeah, he’s in bed, I gave him some cold and flu meds” I said. Cam and Eric both finished up what they were doing and went down to check on him. The rest of us finished cleaning up the dinner dishes, then dished out dessert and hung out in the living room. By the time we had the pie on plates Cam and Eric were back. They had checked on Max and he was fast asleep.
The next day I went to my psychology class alone, Max was still sick and decided to stay home. I had my check-in with the professor on my paper and it went great, he was impressed by my approach and I was on track to finish by the end of the semester. After classes I went to work, then home to check on Max who was on the couch wrapped in a blanket. The next day was pretty much the same and Max was still sick.
Wednesday afternoon came and Zach and I were packed and ready to go to the airport. We checked on Max before we left, unfortunately he was still sick and decided to stay at the duplex over Thanksgiving while Eric took Cam home with him. That would leave Max and Brody alone in the house, Brody promised to check in on Max. With all that settled and everything locked up, Zach and I headed to the airport.
I was so happy to finally be sitting on the plane, between the drama at the duplex and the drama about to go down in Phoenix my anxiety level was through the roof. For the first hour of the flight, I was focused on my paper, going through the notes the professor gave me and tweaking as I really thought through his input. After about an hour, exhaustion took over and I passed out for the rest of the trip. We were in the very last row, just the two of us in three seats; Zach leaned against the window and I leaned against Zach. I woke up to the touch of his hand down my pants under the blanket. I looked up at him and he was looking down on me with a shit eating grin on his magnificently beautiful face.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked with a smile on my face.
“Filling out my application for the mile high club” he said with a smile on his face and his hand on my manhood. I just stayed there with my head on his shoulder and subtly moved my hand to his crotch, he was already semi hard. I rubbed him through his jeans for a few minutes making his member strain against its confines before I fumbled with his zipper and let him spring free. I looked around us, there was no one across the aisle, and the people in front of us were asleep. Our only threats of being caught were the flight attendant and any visitors to the bathroom. Surprisingly, the flight wasn’t very full considering it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I decided to risk it. I lowered my head from Zach’s shoulder to his chest, then under the thin blue blanket to rest on his abs hovering above his blood engorged slab of man meat. I fumbled with his belt, then he hooked his thumbs into the waistband, lifted his perfect jock ass and pushed his pants and underwear down to the floor in front of the seat.
Once I had full access, I wasted no time devouring him. I licked from tip to balls and back again before fully enveloping him in my warm, wet mouth. A quiet moan escaped his lips as he sat there with his head against the wall, his eyes closed stroking my hair with one hand and my cock with the other. We were both hard as hell knowing we could be caught at any second. I reveled in every ridge, vein, and pour of him as I moved my head up and down sucking, licking, and twirling my tongue around him as I did. His breathing was getting more erratic and he was pushing his hips up to bury himself deeper down my throat. He was almost silent as he enjoyed my attack while trying not to bring attention to us. With my sucking and him pumping it didn’t take long before he whispered breathlessly “I’m gonna shoot Fuck, here it comes.” He shot a powerful spurt into my mouth; I took him deeper and the rest of his load went straight down my throat to my gullet. I swallowed every drop, then licked his beautiful cock clean. He shuddered as I squeezed the last drop out of him and licked his sensitive tip. As I was cleaning him up, the flight attendant announced that we were starting our descent into Phoenix. We got ourselves together before the flight attendant came back for his final inspection. No one was the wiser. With my head back on Zach’s shoulder he whispered in my ear “I owe you one on the way home” I smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek.
When the plane touched down, I texted Scotty that we had arrived, he and Eli were on their way and would meet us at baggage claim. We were traveling light, so we grabbed our carry-ons and headed to meet my brothers. As we walked through the bustling airport Zach pointed and said, “Isn’t that your parents over there?”
Without looking I responded, “It can’t be, they don’t come in until Friday” and dismissed the thought.
“I’m pretty sure that’s them” he said. I looked to where he had pointed, sure as hell, there they were sitting at a table having dinner. They were engaged in conversation and didn’t see us sidle up next to them “Father? Mother? What are you doing here?” I asked. My mother almost squealed in delight when she saw us.
“we decided to come a couple of days early and make a real vacation of it” my mother said as my father shook Zach’s hand and the two made pleasantries. “We have a room at one of the resorts in Scottsdale, we know you’re all busy tomorrow but were hoping to spend a little more time with everyone.”
‘Shit!’ I thought to myself ‘this is NOT going to be a welcomed surprise.’ Nobody was looking forward to their visit except for me, and I was starting to see it as a necessary evil more than a joyous reunion. In order for me to have a relationship with them, this meeting had to happen, but it was going to be rough.
“Why don’t you boys join us?” father said as he looked around for a couple of empty chairs.
“We have to meet our ride, but we’ll see you on Friday at the house.” I said trying to get out of it. I knew Brad and Eli would not appreciate me showing up with my parents two days early.
“Is one of your brothers picking you up?” Mother asked.
I was hesitant to tell her but I finally confessed “Brad and Eli are meeting us downstairs.”
“WONDERFUL” She said loudly as she started to gather her things and Father paid the check, “we’ll go with you.” Shit! They were going to follow us. Zach saw the panic in my eyes and understood exactly what I was thinking. He texted Brad to warn them as we started towards the baggage claim. Zach kept checking his phone for a response from Brad… nothing.
As we glided down the escalator my mother saw Brad and Eli waiting and started to yell their names and wave as father stood stoically behind us. Even from high up on the escalator I could see the looks on my brothers faces; Eli’s was a combination of confusion, surprise, and fear, and Brad’s was one of pure distain. It had been about six years since father had disowned Brad, and almost four years since he and his church cronies abducted him in an attempt to get him into conversion therapy. My brothers were not happy about the surprise attack. We got to the bottom of the escalator and mother hugged Brad, then Eli. She had seen them a few times since we all moved in with Brad, however, no one had seen my father except for me. My father moved into hug Brad; Brad instinctively pulled back. It was clear that he was not ready to touch the man that rejected him and pulled his family apart. Brad regained his composure and tentatively shook my father’s hand. Eli, on the other hand, allowed father to hug him, he looked uncomfortable as hell, but he did it. I could see him trembling as he lightly patted his father’s back.
“I thought you weren’t coming to town until Friday” Brad said while looking directly at mother and avoiding father.
“We decided to come a couple of days early and make a real vacation of it” my mother said again. “We know you boys have plans but we were hoping to spend a little more time with you all.” We all made small talk for a few minutes and then parted ways.
When we got into Brad’s car, he was silent and didn’t say a word until we pulled into the driveway. “I fucking hated that” he said quietly, almost to himself as he got out of the car. When we walked into the house Scotty and Brian greeted us with excitement, it was so awesome to be home. We all hung out in the kitchen talking, laughing, and catching up on everything, all of us except Brad that is. He went into his bedroom and we didn’t see him for over an hour and when he finally joined us, he just sat silently drinking his beer. For the rest of the night Brad was in his own world, seeing my father again was rough on him. That fact raised my own anxiety level, what the hell was I thinking? This reunion was a bad idea.
Zach and I went to bed early but I just laid there staring at the ceiling all night worrying about dinner with my parents. Zach woke up in the middle of the night and said “listen, dinner isn’t until Friday, stop sweating it and just try to have fun tomorrow.” He was right, I just snuggled up against him and finally fell asleep.
# # # #
It was Thanksgiving morning and Kevin’s house was a hive of activity and smelled amazing. We had made several meals to share with people in the community (our annual Thanksgiving tradition). Baby Scotty and Matty were helping their best buddy Zach finish up baking cookies, I was helping Kevin and the guys package all the food and figure out what to take where. All our friends were there helping as usual, it was so good to be home where I belonged. I had already forgotten about the awkwardness at the airport and tomorrow’s reunion was out of my mind. I was in the moment with the people I loved. I was helping Kevin load up SUV with food and babies to go visit an elderly gay couple, Bruce and Michael and bring them a Thanksgiving feast. Zach and I had met them last year and were excited to see them again. As I was getting into the back of the Range Rover Brad grabbed my shoulder and said, “change of plans you’re coming with us.” Zach started to follow and was stopped by Brad, “You go visit Bruce and Michael; we’ll meet you back here later.” Zach smiled, he was fine with that, but I was wondering what was going on.
Every year, Brad and Scotty took a huge meal to the police station to thank the officers that led the effort to find him when he was abducted by our father and the church. He and Scotty typically went alone, it was a private errand that meant a lot to him. “This year you’re coming with me he said” in a stern voice as he got into his car. He and Scotty were in front and I was sitting in the back.
He drove down the hill and took a left going towards Scottsdale, the police station was in the opposite direction. “I thought we were going to the police station” I said.
“We’re making another stop first. I invited father and mother” Brad said as he watched the road and drove forward. Scotty just sat in the front seat not saying a word. “Seth, when I saw him yesterday it all came back, the fear, the anger, the loneliness, all of it” Brad said. Scotty and I just listened. “You know, father and I haven’t talked in six years. All the shit he put us through and we haven’t said a word about it. Well, I need to fucking talk about it” his voice was getting louder and angrier as he spoke. “We’re going to the police station together and he’s going to hear firsthand the hell he put us through. And so are you.”
“ME?!” I said defensively. “I know what happened, I was part of it too.”
“Yeah, you know what happened, but you didn’t live it like we did” Brad said, “You had to live with that horrible man, but you were young, and obedient. You were spared a lot of the bullshit, and frankly Seth, you were blissfully unaware of so much.” He paused and we drove in silence for a bit. Right before we drove up to the hotel to pick up my parents Brad said, “I know you want us all to just move on like nothing happened, join hands, and sing Kumbaya, but it’s not gonna happen. I think it’s important that you understand what it is you’re asking me to forgive and forget.” Just then the car stopped and my parents were standing there waiting for us. We got out of the car to greet each other, the awkwardness between Brad, Scotty and my father was so thick you could almost see the cement wall between them. Mother smiled, gushed, and hugged us all. Her and Scotty had a rough start but had gotten to know each other over the years and found a way to connect.
We all piled back in the car with me sitting in the back between my mother and father. “It smells wonderful in here” my mother said. “We were so happy you texted, Brad. I was so hoping to see more of you this trip. So, we’re taking dinner to our boys in blue who are stuck working on the Holiday? What a lovely tradition.” It was clear to me that Brad hadn’t told them the significance of this gesture, they had no clue that they were about to meet the people who had saved their son… from them.
The trip to the police station went by quickly with mother babbling the entire time. She was asking me about school, asking about when the girls would get here, etc. Typical mom stuff. Brad pulled into a parking spot near the door and we started to unload all the food. When we walked in, the officers cheered for us, they all knew Brad and Scotty. Marc, one of our friends from the village, was on duty and greeted me, Brad, and Scotty with bear hugs and helped us set up the food (damn, Marc was so hot). One of the detectives came out and hugged Brad like an old friend. I noticed that Brad didn’t introduce my parents. Once the food had been set up the two of them just kind of awkwardly stood there. A couple of younger officers were wondering what was happening and the detective that had hugged Brad started to tell them (apparently this happened every year).
“Brad here went missing a few years ago” he said to the rookies, “What has it been, almost four years, Brad?” he asked my brother who nodded as he glanced towards my father, watching for his reaction. “A friend of his had reported him missing to officer Marc.”
Marc chimed in “It was my neighbor Kevin, Scotty’s brother” he said motioning to Scotty. “They had all been in Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve and no one had heard from Brad since they left the airport, then when he didn’t show up for work on the 2nd, everyone started to worry.”
The detective continued the story, “Marc and his partner went to Brad’s apartment to investigate and discovered his car in the parking garage with the door open and the keys lying next to it.” The detective paused and Marc took over again.
“We were able to pull surveillance footage and saw him being ambushed by two men, and a needle being stuck into his neck. They drugged him and forced him out of the garage and into a van parked out front.” By now my father understood why he was here, he stood there and listened with no expression on his face, listening to the tale of his son’s abduction. The abduction he had initiated. Brad stared into him looking for any signs of remorse or regret but his expression was blank and his face pale. “The van was registered to a church in Texas, when we told that to Scotty, he quickly put two and two together and was convinced that he was abducted by his own father.” Neither Marc nor the detective had any clue that the man in the room with us was his father.
The rookies were listening intently as they filled their plates with food “Was he right?” one of them asked.
“Yup” the detective replied. “We put out an APB on the van and called in any and every favor we had from here to Texas. They found the van at a roadside motel in New Mexico. Brad and another young man were found passed out in a room. Apparently, the church was rounding up the sinners for a little repentance and conversion therapy. The church had a history of this.”
“Who in the hell would do that to their own kid?” One of the rookies asked. FINALLY, father reacted, his head went down in shame, mother shot Brad a nasty look as if to say, ‘how dare you do this to your father’ Brad had zero regrets. He wanted father to see it from the other side. To experience it as he did.
“A misguided monster” the detective said. “It’s more common than you think.”
“So, then what?” another wide-eyed rookie asked.
“Well, this one over here was relentless…” Marc said motioning to Scotty “The two of them had only been dating about a month and Scotty still lived in Denver. He jumped on a flight and got here ASAP, then when we found Brad, he made his brother take him to New Mexico to see him.”
“And get this part” the detective said. “The father and his pals were released on bail… their church was lawyered up and used to these kind of situations… and this guy had the balls to try to get into the hospital to get to Brad.”
One of the rookies gasped, he was enthralled in the conversation “Did he get in?”
Marc laughed “Nope. Our little enforcer over there…” he said motioning to Scotty, “Broke his nose.” The guys all laughed. I looked over at my father and studied his face. His nose had a crook in it as a souvenir of Scotty’s punch, and there was a look of humiliation and shame on his aged face. We stayed another twenty minutes or so as the officers laughed, and swapped stories. They were always happy to see Brad, they considered him one of their great success stories.
When we were finished, we all piled into the car. Before we even got out of the parking space my mother attacked Brad. “That was a horrible thing for you to do. How dare you subject your father to that humiliation.”
Brad glared at her in the rearview mirror and yelled, I. Mean. YELLED! “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” I had never heard such venom and bile flow from my sweet, caring brother’s lips. “That son of a bitch would have sooner killed me than let me be who I was. If you all want my forgiveness, then you damn well better realize what it is you’re asking me to forgive.”
I finally spoke up “But Brad, this is supposed to be a reunion, a time to….”
Brad cut me off, “Oh shut up, Seth.” Brad had NEVER spoken to me like that before. EVER. “Stop romanticizing this! Don’t you get it? If he would have succeeded in getting me into conversion therapy, made me pray the gay away, fried my brain with electroshock therapy or whatever hideous bullshit he had planned to change who I was, he would have come for you next.” That thought had never occurred to me. In all these years, I never thought about me being the next target… but Brad was right. Brad saved my life. Those officers saved my life. The magnitude of what my father tried to do washed over me. I had been so young, so naïve, that I never saw myself as next in line. Even if he was right, I felt Brad had been a little unfair to my father.
Mother was yelling at Brad as I tried to process what Brad said. Father and Scotty remained silent. Scotty reached back from the front passenger seat and put his hand on my knee in support. He knew he needed to let Brad get this out, he also knew how painful it was for me.
We pulled up to the door hotel and mother jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and stormed into the lobby. Father sat there a moment in silence, then finally spoke “there’s nothing I can say, Bradley. I am truly sorry, but I know those words are meaningless to you. It was wrong to expect your forgiveness.” Then he looked me in the eye with a look on his face that said, ‘I’m sorry.’ It felt like goodbye as he got out of the car.
We started to Kevin’s in silence when I finally had to speak, even though I understood why he did it, I still felt bad for my dad. “That was cruel, Brad” I blurted out as I glared at him in the rearview mirror.
Scotty spoke for pretty much the first time all morning “Cruel?” Oh, come on Seth! You want cruel?! How about cutting off your college aged son, taking all his savings away, shutting his phone off, keeping him from his brothers and sisters and pretty much leaving him to rot, then showing up two years later with a couple of thugs shoving a needle in his neck and dragging him away from the life he built and the people who love him. THAT’S cruel” Scotty’s voice was stern and committed. “Personally, I’m damn proud of him for finally getting it off his chest.” Then he kissed my brother on the cheek. I sat in silence for the rest of the ride, trying to process everything.
By the time we got to Kev’s, everyone else was back and the celebration was in full swing. All our friends were gathered and telling stories about their morning, the three of us walked in silently. Zach greeted me with a big hug and a beer. I smiled at him weakly then went out to the little patio off the dining room where it was quiet and I could think. This whole reunion was a mistake and it was highly unlikely that my parents would even show up.
I was surrounded by friends and family, why did I crave a relationship with my parents so bad? Even after everything I heard, I still wanted it.
To be continued…
For the full story of Brad's abduction and more background on Seth's family read my series Adulting (The story of BRad's disappearance starts in Chapter 26).
