The next day, I tried not to watch the window.<\/p>\n
I failed before the coffee finished brewing.<\/p>\n
Every time a shadow moved across the glass, I looked up.<\/p>\n
Every time a car stopped near the curb, I wondered whether Tommy was coming.<\/p>\n
Tank noticed, but he kept his mouth shut.<\/p>\n
That was how I knew he was worried too.<\/p>\n
We had grown used to seeing Tommy's face in the doorway.<\/p>\n
It had happened so gradually that none of us had marked the moment it became part of the morning.<\/p>\n
Now his absence felt noticeable.<\/p>\n
I told myself that one missed visit didn't mean anything.<\/p>\n
Helen had work.<\/p>\n
Tommy had a home routine.<\/p>\n
Maybe he had errands to run with her.<\/p>\n
Maybe he was tired.<\/p>\n
Maybe she had decided she needed a day without the shop.<\/p>\n
She was allowed to make that decision.<\/p>\n
Still, I found myself checking the clock.<\/p>\n
By late morning, Wheels finally spoke.<\/p>\n
"You think she's changed her mind?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"Should we go ask?"<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
"Not yet."<\/p>\n
He leaned against the counter.<\/p>\n
"Why not?"<\/p>\n
"Because I told her we'd respect her decision. I can't say that and then show up every time I get impatient."<\/p>\n
Wheels looked toward the window.<\/p>\n
"I wasn't thinking about us being impatient."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
He rubbed a hand over his face.<\/p>\n
"That kid looked happy here."<\/p>\n
"He did."<\/p>\n
"And he looked like he needed it."<\/p>\n
I didn't disagree.<\/p>\n
But need was a complicated thing.<\/p>\n
A person could need companionship and still need the stability of home.<\/p>\n
A child could benefit from a place outside the house without being pulled into a conflict between adults.<\/p>\n
If I wanted to help Tommy, I had to remember that the shop wasn't the only part of his life.<\/p>\n
Helen was part of it too.<\/p>\n
Whether I liked her choices or not, she was the adult responsible for him.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to make Tommy feel he had to choose between us.<\/p>\n
So we waited.<\/p>\n
Around noon, Tiny went outside to put a few tools away.<\/p>\n
When he returned, he had a small brown dog following him.<\/p>\n
The animal was thin, with one white paw and a patch of fur missing near its ear.<\/p>\n
Tiny had been feeding it behind the building for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
Today, it seemed willing to follow him farther.<\/p>\n
"Looks like we have company," Tiny said.<\/p>\n
The dog stopped near the entrance and sniffed the floor.<\/p>\n
Wheels crouched a few feet away.<\/p>\n
"What's his name?"<\/p>\n
"He doesn't have one."<\/p>\n
"That's sad."<\/p>\n
"Maybe he hasn't told us yet."<\/p>\n
Tiny set a bowl of water near the wall.<\/p>\n
The dog drank cautiously.<\/p>\n
I watched him and thought about Tommy.<\/p>\n
There was something familiar about the way both of them approached a new place.<\/p>\n
Neither came rushing in.<\/p>\n
Neither seemed certain the welcome would last.<\/p>\n
They watched first.<\/p>\n
They tested the ground.<\/p>\n
They waited for the people inside to show what they meant.<\/p>\n
That afternoon, I took a small walk during my break.<\/p>\n
I didn't cross to Helen's house.<\/p>\n
I went in the opposite direction, past the hardware store and the little diner where Tank bought coffee.<\/p>\n
I needed to clear my head.<\/p>\n
I had spent most of my life solving problems that could be laid out on a workbench.<\/p>\n
A motorcycle came in with a bad starter.<\/p>\n
You checked the connections.<\/p>\n
You tested the battery.<\/p>\n
You found the faulty part and replaced it.<\/p>\n
People weren't like that.<\/p>\n
You couldn't open them up and point to the broken piece.<\/p>\n
You couldn't tighten a bolt and know everything would hold.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you could do everything you thought was right and still make a situation worse.<\/p>\n
When I returned, Tank was working at the front bench.<\/p>\n
The chair remained empty.<\/p>\n
I looked at it, then went to wash my hands.<\/p>\n
Near three o'clock, I heard a knock against the open doorframe.<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
Tommy stood there.<\/p>\n
His backpack hung from one shoulder.<\/p>\n
He was wearing the oversized shoes again, but this time the laces had been tied in uneven knots.<\/p>\n
He looked worried.<\/p>\n
"Hey, buddy."<\/p>\n
He didn't smile right away.<\/p>\n
"Can I come in?"<\/p>\n
I set down the rag I was holding.<\/p>\n
"Of course."<\/p>\n
He entered slowly.<\/p>\n
I glanced toward the street.<\/p>\n
Helen wasn't visible.<\/p>\n
"Did your aunt say it was okay to visit?"<\/p>\n
Tommy nodded.<\/p>\n
"She said I could come for a little while."<\/p>\n
Relief moved through me, but I kept my voice calm.<\/p>\n
"Then let's make the most of your little while."<\/p>\n
He went straight to the old chair.<\/p>\n
Before sitting, he checked the shelf behind it.<\/p>\n
His drawing was still there.<\/p>\n
He smiled.<\/p>\n
"You kept it."<\/p>\n
"I told you we would."<\/p>\n
He sat down and set his backpack beside his feet.<\/p>\n
I returned to the bench, but he called my name.<\/p>\n
"Bear?"<\/p>\n
"Yeah?"<\/p>\n
"Did you think I wasn't coming?"<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
I could have given him a simple answer.<\/p>\n
Instead, I told him the truth in a way a seven-year-old could understand.<\/p>\n
"I wondered when I'd see you again."<\/p>\n
He studied me.<\/p>\n
"Because you wanted me to come?"<\/p>\n
"Because we like having you here."<\/p>\n
His face softened.<\/p>\n
He leaned back in the chair.<\/p>\n
For a while, he watched Tank work.<\/p>\n
Then he pulled the folded drawing from his backpack.<\/p>\n
He had made additions to it.<\/p>\n
The four motorcycles had new lines around their wheels.<\/p>\n
The figures had faces now.<\/p>\n
And beside the little boy, he had drawn a dog with one white paw.<\/p>\n
"That's Tiny's dog," he explained.<\/p>\n
"Looks like him."<\/p>\n
"He needs a name."<\/p>\n
Tiny looked over from the storage room.<\/p>\n
"That's true."<\/p>\n
Tommy tapped his pencil against the page.<\/p>\n
"What names do dogs like?"<\/p>\n
Wheels laughed.<\/p>\n
"I don't think they get to vote."<\/p>\n
"Maybe they should," Tommy said.<\/p>\n
That made all of us laugh, including Tommy.<\/p>\n
He looked pleased that he had made us laugh.<\/p>\n
Tiny sat on his heels beside the chair.<\/p>\n
"What would you call him?"<\/p>\n
Tommy thought for a while.<\/p>\n
"Buddy."<\/p>\n
Wheels lifted his eyebrows.<\/p>\n
"That's a pretty good dog name."<\/p>\n
Tommy looked toward the entrance, where the dog sometimes waited.<\/p>\n
"Because he's our buddy."<\/p>\n
Tiny nodded.<\/p>\n
"Then Buddy it is, until he tells us otherwise."<\/p>\n
Tommy wrote the name on the drawing.<\/p>\n
His letters were uneven, and the final Y stretched down farther than the others.<\/p>\n
He held it up for me to see.<\/p>\n
I told him it was good work.<\/p>\n
He tucked it away again, careful not to bend the paper.<\/p>\n
For the next hour, he helped Tiny put away clean rags and watched Wheels check the pressure in a tire.<\/p>\n
He asked whether a motorcycle could run without a wheel.<\/p>\n
Wheels explained why it couldn't.<\/p>\n
Tommy asked whether a person could run without shoes.<\/p>\n
Wheels looked down at Tommy's oversized footwear.<\/p>\n
"Some people can. I wouldn't recommend it on this floor."<\/p>\n
Tommy laughed.<\/p>\n
Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Do you remember when I came here without shoes?"<\/p>\n
"I remember."<\/p>\n
"I didn't know if you would let me in."<\/p>\n
I stopped wiping the counter.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't you know?"<\/p>\n
He shrugged.<\/p>\n
"I didn't know you."<\/p>\n
That answer was fair.<\/p>\n
"That's true," I said. "You didn't."<\/p>\n
He looked at the door.<\/p>\n
"But you did let me in."<\/p>\n
"I did."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
I thought about the question.<\/p>\n
There were a hundred things I could have said.<\/p>\n
Because you were lonely.<\/p>\n
Because I heard your aunt talking.<\/p>\n
Because I thought you needed somebody.<\/p>\n
Because I saw you watching us and wondered what you wanted.<\/p>\n
But the answer I gave him was simpler.<\/p>\n
"Because you knocked, Tommy. And you asked."<\/p>\n
He seemed to accept that.<\/p>\n
Then he went back to his drawing.<\/p>\n
I wondered how many times he had needed something and decided not to ask.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether he was beginning to believe that asking didn't always end in disappointment.<\/p>\n
That was not something I could measure.<\/p>\n
I could only keep showing him.<\/p>\n
Before he left, he asked if he could take the drawing home.<\/p>\n
I said it was his to do with as he pleased.<\/p>\n
He studied the shelf one last time.<\/p>\n
"Can I bring it back?"<\/p>\n
"Any time."<\/p>\n
He folded it carefully and put it in his backpack.<\/p>\n
When Helen arrived, she stayed near the doorway.<\/p>\n
She looked from Tommy to the chair, then toward the cardboard shelf where the first drawing had been.<\/p>\n
"He had a good afternoon," I said.<\/p>\n
Helen's expression remained guarded.<\/p>\n
"He says he likes coming here."<\/p>\n
"He seems to."<\/p>\n
She looked at Tommy.<\/p>\n
"Did you behave?"<\/p>\n
Tommy nodded.<\/p>\n
"I helped."<\/p>\n
"What did you help with?"<\/p>\n
He began explaining the rags, the tire, and the dog named Buddy.<\/p>\n
Helen listened, although her eyes occasionally moved toward the street.<\/p>\n
When Tommy finished, she adjusted the strap of his backpack.<\/p>\n
"Come on. We need to get home."<\/p>\n
Tommy looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Tomorrow?"<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
Helen let out a tired breath.<\/p>\n
"We'll see."<\/p>\n
It wasn't the answer Tommy wanted.<\/p>\n
It wasn't the answer I wanted either.<\/p>\n
But I nodded.<\/p>\n
"Have a good evening, buddy."<\/p>\n
He waved and followed her outside.<\/p>\n
This time, Helen didn't hurry him across the street.<\/p>\n
She walked beside him at his pace.<\/p>\n
I watched until they reached their front door.<\/p>\n
Then I went back to the workbench.<\/p>\n
I had no right to decide what Helen should do.<\/p>\n
I could not know what she was carrying simply by looking at her tired face.<\/p>\n
But I could keep the chair ready.<\/p>\n
I could keep the drawing safe.<\/p>\n
And whenever Tommy was allowed to come, I could make sure he didn't have to wonder whether he was welcome.<\/p>\n
The next day, I tried not to watch the window. I failed before the coffee finished brewing. Every time a shadow moved across the glass, I looked up. Every time … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40030,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40010\/revisions\/40030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}