Seven Times They Chose Him. The Last Time, They Lost Me novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: The Mailbox With the Owl
My father came on Sunday afternoon, alone, in the pickup.
He stood in the yard with a flat box under one arm and looked at the barn, the woodpile and the line of prints drying on the porch rail.
"Nice place," he said.
"Thank you," Aunt Dot said.
She stayed in the doorway with her arms crossed, and she did not ask him in.
I sat on the porch swing with my sketchbook closed on my knee.
"Hey, bud." He climbed the steps and sat on the top one, and the wood complained. "Got something for you."
He held out the box.
It was a drawing tablet, the real kind, with a stylus and a screen.
I had looked at the same model online for two years.
"It's the one you wanted," he said. "I remembered."
"How?"
"Your mother mentioned it."
"I never told her."
His smile slipped, and he fixed it.
"You must have left it open on the family computer. Look, bud, don't be like that. I'm trying here."
"Thank you," I said. "But I can't take it."
"Why not?"
"Because I think you're giving it to me so I'll come to the gala."
"That isn't fair."
"Is it wrong?"
He didn't answer.
A crow landed on the barn roof and said something sharp.
"The poster has my name on it," I said. "Nobody asked me."
"I'm asking now."
"You printed it first."
"It's a fundraiser, Zack. There's a lot of moving parts." He rubbed his face with both hands. "The money is for Dylan's next surgery. Three hundred people are counting on this."
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