Chapter 4

The boy's blatantly obvious fear perplexed Mark and his younger friend. Was Edward afraid that his father would be angry with the boy for going into this house? Was he afraid that Mark or Jesse would turn him in to his father? Shrugging their thoughts off, the two followed the boy into the house.

Taking a deep breath, Edward prepared to give the apology speech he had thought up and leave quickly. Just as he was about to speak, his gaze locked with that of Amanda's. Seeing the lovely woman brought a fresh wave of tears to the boy's eyes, and he began sobbing uncontrollably. Now even this nice woman would hate him, see him as a horrible monster and criminal.

Amanda stood staring in shock until the boy began to cry. She flung down the coat she had been carrying, ran to the child, and threw her arms around him. After the boy had left, she had spent the past couple of hours feeling guilty about letting Edward go home with his most-likely abusive father. Seeing the boy again, she was grateful but very concerned. The boy reminded her so much of her adopted son, Dion.

"Shh," Amanda cooed. "It's alright. Don't worry." She gently steered him to the couch in the family room. The boy complied, but Amanda's affectionate words only fueled his grief.

Standing in the doorway awkwardly, Mark and Jesse watched as Amanda seemed to so capably handle the enigmatic child. After a couple of moments, the two men removed their coats and shoes and followed Amanda into the family room.

"Please, honey. Just tell me what's wrong," Amanda pleaded as she sat on the sofa next to the boy. "Are you afraid of your father? I promise I'll help you. I'll protect you."

Wiping his face on his sleeve, Edward sobered up a little and replied, "It's not that; if I tell you, you'll all hate me."

Amanda looked at the boy incredulously. How similar this moment was to the time when Dion had lost his disposable camera and had been afraid of being punished. This time, however, Amanda was certain that the problem wasn't so trivial. "I could never hate you," she said with gentle conviction.

Sucking in a calming breath, Edward steeled himself. He had already screwed up once, and his father had generously given him a second chance. As much as he loathed himself for it, he pushed aside his roller coaster of emotions and proceeded with the plan.

Hand shaking, he pulled out Mark's key chain and held it out in front of him. Edward kept his head low, his voice defeated and soft. "I stole them. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" It was all he could do to keep himself from crying again.

The three adults in the room were stunned into silence. Mark was the first to recover. He stepped forward and gingerly took the keys from the boy's hand. In a desperate attempt to lighten the mood he said, "Well, that was certainly something unexpected."

Edward's lip quivered. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "Do what you want with me; call the police. I'm sorry!"

Mark's gaze softened and he knelt in front of the boy. "Now why would I do something like that?" He forced a chuckle to make the boy feel better. "I should thank you for returning these. Now I won't have to use Steve's spare set of keys to drive!"

"You mean you're not mad at me?"

"Edward," Amanda said suddenly, effectively changing the subject. "Did your father hurt you because you took those keys? Did he make you come back to return them?"

Silently, the boy nodded with his head still down. He couldn't bring himself to look Amanda in the eye.

"Amanda," Mark said quickly. "Can I speak to you for a second?" He motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen.

Jesse almost followed them before realizing that he couldn't just leave the boy alone. Once again noting Edward's black eye, he changed his mind and politely excused himself to leave for a moment.

Mark gave Jesse a reproachful glance when he saw the young man enter the kitchen. "What about Edward? Someone needs to stay with him."

"I know," Jesse responded, walking to the freezer and rooting around for something. "But he needs some ice for that black eye." Finding a bag of frozen peas, Jesse closed the freezer and wrapped the bag in a towel. "So, what do you think?"

Sighing, Mark replied, "I don't know what to think. Something just isn't right here, but I can't put my finger on what it is."

Jesse raised his eyebrows. "You mean besides the fact that some strange boy with an even stranger father shows up on your doorstep and steals your keys. Your keys! What on earth would a kid want with a bunch of keys, anyway? Why not go for your wallet?"

"That's it Jesse!" Mark's eyes lit up and his mind went into overdrive. "That's the strange part. Why didn't he steal my wallet? What could he possibly gain by stealing my keys?"

He walked quickly to the stairs leading to the lowest level of the house, calling over his shoulder, "I'll get Steve. Amanda, why don't you fix Edward something to eat. Jesse, make sure he's alright, OK?"

With that, Amanda hurriedly went to the stove and Jesse, remembering what he originally had intended to come into the kitchen for, took the bag of frozen vegetables into the family room. Jesse cocked his head in confusion when Edward, who had just seen Jesse, ran from somewhere in the family room to the couch. The boy looked as if he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

The young doctor ignored this and slowly approached the boy who seemed to try to shrink back deep into the couch cushion. "Here." Jesse handed the boy the frozen bag.

Seeing the name Green Giant and the pictures of peas, Edward stared at Jesse like he was insane. In response, Jesse wrapped the towel over the front of the bag and held it out again. "For your eye," Jesse explained quickly. "It will make the swelling go down."

Still confused, the boy took the bag and held it up to his eye. It stung horribly, but he left it there. Even if it did make him look like an idiot to wear a bag of peas like an eye patch, the boy wasn't going to do anything else to make these people mad.

It was great enough that they didn't seem to be too upset about the keys. All rationale told Edward to get out of the house as quickly as possible, but for some reason he found himself unable to leave. What would happen if he stayed? Surely it wouldn't hurt the plan to stay with these people just a little while longer.

A long silence followed between Jesse and the boy. Feeling very uncomfortable, Jesse sat on the couch next to Edward, but he couldn't think of a single intelligent thing to say. He heard a rustling in the kitchen and then remembered what Amanda was doing. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "Amanda's making you something to eat."

At first, the boy was disinterested, but then his head perked up. "Amanda? She is?" he asked.

"Yes, and let me tell you that her cooking is the best in the world!"

"Really?" the boy asked hopefully. In truth, he was starving; he couldn't remember the last time he had anything decent to eat.

And thus, Edward made one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He became hopeful, content, at peace. It was only then that he saw a very familiar figure staring at him through the window of the beach house. And there Edward was, sitting on the couch, talking pleasantly with Jesse, and holding a bag of vegetables over his bruised eye.