Chapter 15 - The Door Caleb Chose for Himself
The following spring, Caleb stood in Helen’s foyer with another black duffel bag.
This one was packed by him.
No one had thrown it anywhere.
He was spending spring break in Pittsburgh with Laura.
Seven days.
It would be their longest time together since he was four.
Helen checked the zipper twice.
“You have your charger?”
“Yes.”
“Medication?”
“I don’t take medication, Grandma.”
“Right.”
Caleb smiled despite himself.
A car horn sounded outside.
Grant had come to drive him to the airport.
Their relationship was different now.
Not repaired.
Different.
Grant no longer entered Helen’s house and announced decisions.
He knocked.
He attended counseling with Caleb twice a month.
Sometimes the sessions went well.
Sometimes Caleb refused to speak to him afterward.
Grant kept coming.
Monica had moved into an apartment in Indianapolis.
She and Grant were attempting couples counseling, but Caleb no longer treated the future of their marriage as his responsibility.
Monica had apologized again.
Caleb had told her he heard her.
He had not said he forgave her.
That belonged to another day, if it ever came.
Outside, Grant loaded Caleb’s duffel bag into the trunk.
For a moment they stood beside the car.
“Nervous?” Grant asked.
“A little.”
Grant nodded.
“Laura probably is too.”
Caleb studied his father.
A year earlier, Grant would not have said her name without bitterness.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you ever wish she hadn’t contacted me?”
Grant looked toward the street.
Then back at his son.
“Sometimes I wish none of this had happened.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Grant gave a tired half-smile.
“No.”
He swallowed.
“I wish I had been brave enough to let you know her before you had to find her yourself.”
Caleb looked down.
There was nothing satisfying to say to that.
Grant opened the passenger door.
Caleb did not get in immediately.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Laura.
I’m already at the airport way too early. Trying not to embarrass you.
Caleb almost smiled.
He typed back:
Too late.
Then another message appeared.
This one from Monica.
I know you’re leaving today. I hope the trip gives you whatever you need.
Caleb stared at it.
He had spent most of the year deciding what Grant and Laura deserved from him.
He had not decided what Monica did.
Grant noticed the name on the screen but did not ask.
Caleb put the phone in his pocket.
He climbed into the car.
Grant shut the door.
For the first time in ten years, Caleb was traveling toward his mother with his father helping him get there.
Whether the three of them could ever become something that felt like a family again was still impossible to know.
But as Grant pulled away from Helen’s house, Caleb looked back at the front door and understood one thing clearly.
May you like
Nobody was putting him out of a home this time.
He was leaving because he had chosen where he wanted to go.
