I Blame You, Albert
It was late in the afternoon when Albert Ingalls found himself sitting alone at the local creek, his fishing poll in hand. It was a quiet day with very little happening. He had asked his sister, Laura, to go fishing with him, but she was too busy visiting the Wilder house, wanting to watch Almanzo break in his new horse. Albert had been feeling somewhat lonely these past few weeks. It seemed like all of his old friends were growing up and moving on without him. All except for Willie, who was still a headache to be around.
Albert sighed, twirling the fishing rod aimlessly. He missed the days when it was just Laura, his best friend Andy and himself, playing around town without a care in the world. Come to think of it, he had not seen Andy in a few days, other than that school. And he barely even talked to him there. Albert pulled his poll out of the water and decided to visit the Garvey house to catch up with his old friend.
It was a short walk over to the house. Albert noticed that the wagon was missing from the barn and there was no real signs of anyone being around. After walking up to the house, Albert heard someone working in the barn. The young boy made his way over to the building and immediately saw Andy moving crates around.
"Hi, Andy." Albert said with a smile, happy to finally see his friend.
It took Andrew a few seconds to notice that Albert was standing there. "Oh. Hey, Albert." Andrew nodded, but then preceded to work as if Albert was not there.
"I was wondering if you had any free time to go fishing." Albert smiled, not yet realizing that Andrew did not want to be bothered with, especially by him.
"Not today, Albert. I have a lot of work to finish." Andrew paid little attention to Albert, talking with a low tone of voice and not even looking at him.
Albert's friendly smile faded away. "Oh. I just figured, since we haven't hung out in awhile, that you might have wanted to go fishing or something." He trailed off.
"Maybe some other day." Andrew did not even think to say goodbye and continued to ignore is friend.
"Alright. I'll just be going then." Albert left the Garvey's house and headed back to his own home. The rest of the day and well into the night, Albert kept thinking about the short conversation he had with Andy. When did this cold shoulder Andy was giving him start? What happened between them that caused so much distance? Albert did not want to lose another friend, so he made up his mind to catch up with Andy at school the next day.
As the lunch break rolled around the following afternoon, the students were released to have eat, play and get some fresh air. Albert passed up on the chance to pick teams for baseball and walked over to Andy instead.
"Hey, Andy." Albert greeted him with the same smile he had on yesterday. He hoped Andy was in a better mood today.
"Hi, Albert." Unfortunately, it was the same uninterested tone Andrew had used before.
"I was thinking, if you were finished with your work, we could go fishing this afternoon."
Andrew shook his head. "Sorry, I still have a lot to finish at home."
Albert did not know how to respond after that, which was strange. "Well...what if I helped you? We could finish the work a whole lot faster if we worked together."
"It's not kids' work." Andrew stood up and walked away from Albert.
The younger boy felt offended at what Andy had said. The two boys had been friends for years and always worked on small projects together. What made Andrew change his attitude and start acting this way? Albert probably should have stopped there, but he wanted to get to the bottom of why Andrew was being so cold to him.
After school was let out, Albert stopped Laura from going straight over to see Almanzo and asked her to come with him to Andy's house one last time. She had not seen Andy outside of school for a few weeks either, so she reluctantly agreed. Still, Albert knew Laura would try to skip out later to visit her crush. The brother and sister took the path they had walked so many times before to their friend's house. When they first came up to the home, they saw Andy and his father standing near the returned wagon.
"Hi, Andy. Hi, Mr. Garvey." Laura said, unaware of the previous conversations Albert had with Andy.
"Hi, Laura, Albert. What brings you two by?" Jonathan Garvey asked, saddling the horses and hooking them up to his rig.
"We just came by to say hi and see how you were doing." Laura answered.
"Well, I wish I could stay and talk, but I have to head over to Sleepy Eye for some business." Jonathan jumped on his wagon and nodded to the pair of siblings. "I'll have to see you two around later. Don't wait up for me, Andrew." The tall man started his team and drove away.
"It's been awhile, Andy." Laura said to her old friend.
"Yea. I've been busy." He responded with a bit more of a positive tone than when he was talking to Albert.
"It looks like it. I don't want too seem rude, but I promised Miss Wilder I would help her after school with some grading." Laura lied, wanting to see Almanzo sooner.
Andrew saw right through her story. "That's alright. I'll see you around."
"Bye, Andy."
Albert wanted to saw something to his sister, but Laura sprinted away too quickly. Albert turned to Andy, who was already beginning to walk away.
"Andy, wait!" Albert yelled, finally gaining some attention from the older boy. "What's wrong? What happened between us? We used to be best friends, but now you're acting like you hate me or something."
Andrew got a strained look on his face and walked up to the shorter boy, towering over him with his new height. "Don't think too hard about, Albert."
"About what? What did I ever do to you?"
"I blame you, Albert!"
"For what?"
"For my mother's death, you bastard!" Andrew yelled in rage. Andrew jumped on top of Albert and started swinging at his friend. Albert tried to push Andrew off of him, but the older boy's height and strength was unbeatable. Andrew pushed Albert's shoulders to the ground and kneed him in the gut. Albert pleaded for Andrew to stop, but Andrew kept cursing in anger.
Andrew gave one final blow to Albert's face, then collapsed on the dirt. Albert's whole body was in pain. He could taste a bid of blood in his mouth. It was just like being beaten up on the streets again. Then, he heard a muffled sound coming from besides him. Albert turned his face, seeing that Andrew was crying and mumbling unrecognizable words. What Albert did not know was that Andrew had been holding in almost all of his emotions since his mother's death. He had to stay strong for his father. But no man, however good intended, can hold in that kind of pain forever.
"Andy?"
Andrew covered his eyes and kept crying. Albert realized that Andrew must have just accepted the fact that his mother was gone. The two laid in the dirt for sometime, Andrew sobbing and Albert feeling stings of pain running through every inch of his body. The sun slowly started to set behind them.
"Albert, I'm so sorry." Andrew finally spoke, still getting chocked up and trying to hold back his tears.
Albert started to tear up too. "No. I'm sorry. It was an accident, I swear. I didn't mean it. God, I never should have done something that stupid. I don't want to lose you as my friend. Is there anyway for you to forgive me?"
Andrew sat up, wiping the dirt and tears from his face. "I just don't know what to do. Nothing is the same anymore. Why did this have to happen? God, I just want to wake up. I just want to see my ma again."
Albert sat up and wrapped his arms around Andrew. "It's okay, Andy."
Andrew took in a few deep breaths to regain control of himself. "I'm sorry that I blamed you for what happened, Albert. It wasn't your fault. It was nobody's fault."
"It's alright. You can blame me if that's what you need. I still blame myself sometimes." Albert continued to comfort Andrew, not really minded the stinging pain anymore. As Andy started to calm down, Albert wiped the dirt from his shirt. "Why don't you come over to my house for dinner?"
Andrew looked up in surprise. "Really?"
"Of course. You deserve a nice home-cooked meal."
Albert and Andy stood up and walked to the Ingalls' house together. It was going to be hard explaining how the two friends got all beat up and dirty, but they did not worry about it. Albert and Andrew were just both happy to finally have their best friend back in their lives.