I knew he'd come back different, I just didn't realise how different he'd be.
Summer camp always brings you back slightly changed, always with those large eyes that have seen so much and done so much more than you as an adult can fully comprehend. They tell you all about their late night camping, the long hikes and tracking animal prints.
They don't tell you about the ones who miss the bus home.
They don't tell you in the hopes that you'll head out to find them and join them and there will be fewer problems for them. I did what I thought was right, I told the police and let them search while I remained at home trying to fund a larger, long term search in case they didn't find him or stopped after a week or so.
And last night he was outside the kitchen door.
I know it was him - he was wearing the gamer hat I got him for his birthday and he still had the same grey-blue eyes. The rest of him was a hulking bearish thing, fur dripping with something that stank all sickly sweet like the terminal ward of the local hospital.
He tried to speak, tried to say mom but all that came out was a low whine.
When he held out a trembling half-hand-half-paw, I knew I had a choice and I knew there'd be no going back. Behind him was a much larger beast that I suspect is his father. That man was always such a brute so this change suits him and maybe it'll suit me too.
He's still my baby and when he comes back tonight I'll join them and walk out to the woods one last time.
Summer camp always brings you back slightly changed, always with those large eyes that have seen so much and done so much more than you as an adult can fully comprehend. They tell you all about their late night camping, the long hikes and tracking animal prints.
They don't tell you about the ones who miss the bus home.
They don't tell you in the hopes that you'll head out to find them and join them and there will be fewer problems for them. I did what I thought was right, I told the police and let them search while I remained at home trying to fund a larger, long term search in case they didn't find him or stopped after a week or so.
And last night he was outside the kitchen door.
I know it was him - he was wearing the gamer hat I got him for his birthday and he still had the same grey-blue eyes. The rest of him was a hulking bearish thing, fur dripping with something that stank all sickly sweet like the terminal ward of the local hospital.
He tried to speak, tried to say mom but all that came out was a low whine.
When he held out a trembling half-hand-half-paw, I knew I had a choice and I knew there'd be no going back. Behind him was a much larger beast that I suspect is his father. That man was always such a brute so this change suits him and maybe it'll suit me too.
He's still my baby and when he comes back tonight I'll join them and walk out to the woods one last time.
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