As I flee the Sennet house, I realize Thomas J is back by my side again. Does he think it's a game, appearing and disappearing when he chooses to? He was at his mother's wasn't he? Why didn't he show himself to her? Why just me? He saw how upset she was!
I am sobbing on the pier beside the weeping willow. My tears dropping into the calm rippling water. I remember when we became blood brothers on this very pier, the day we went fishing and I couldn't bear to see the fish die. I hated death, even then. I hate it still, even more since it took Thomas J. Why do kids get taken, while the old, like Gramoo suffer, waiting to be taken?
Thomas J gently took the fish off the hook after I had screamed it him not to kill the fish. He had dropped the now limp fish back into the river. "Did it get away?" I had asked him and he nodded, not looking at me.
"He got away," he had said, in that tone he always used when he was lying.
"I was trying to protect you, you know." Thomas J's small voice broke into my thoughts. "I didn't want to see you cry. You see death all the time, when they wheel them into your Dad's house and I know it scares you."
I am wiping my tears away with the back of my arm. Thomas J always thought of me, even when I wasn't thinking of him. He thought of me the day we went to the doctor's surgery and the receptionist had given him a cool water gun. He had made sure I would get one to.
"It doesn't scare me so much anymore. It just makes me sad." When I look into Thomas J's eyes I can tell he understands. Why can't anyone else? Shelly tries but I can tell she doesn't.
"Thomas J, why can't your Mom see you?" I ask him. He just shakes his head.
"I wish I knew."
We sit by the brook in silence until the sun goes down and its time to go home. I am starving, but the thought of eating with the Sultonfusses again made my stomach churn, remembering how the last one went. When I get home, I'm going straight to my room. Maybe later I'll sneak downstairs and make myself a Peanut-butter and Jelly sandwich.