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"Mr. Chuck, will you take me home?" Abigail asked the next morning as she was eating breakfast. She had awoken early, hoping to smell her mother's cooking before remembering that she wasn't at home. Her breakfast of stale cereal and milk that was slightly questionable had made her realize just how much she was missing her family. She wanted to go home. Her longing to return to her family was enough to forget about the car accident the day before. She felt fine, so there was no need to remember it.

Actually, it was amazing how fine Abigail felt. Mr. Chuck must have had some miracle medicine that he used. Or maybe she had just imagined how bad it was. Either way, she didn't have any more injuries.

"Missing your family?" Chuck asked knowingly, trying to ignore how. The state of his house made it clear that children shouldn't be staying there. Abigail nodded shyly and took another bite of her cereal.

"Do you ever miss yours?" she questioned. "Don't you get lonely being alone?"

"Not really," Chuck replied. "I don't have much of a family anymore and I don't really get along with those that are left."

"Why not?" Abigail asked, pushing her last pieces of cereal around the bowl with her spoon. She wasn't sure she wanted to finish the milk like she normally did. It tasted funny to her.

A strange look crossed Chuck's face, a look that Abigail missed as she was playing with her cereal.

"They fight a lot and always expect me to fix everything. It got to be too much after a while so I left. Now I get to do whatever I want and I can ignore the bad things happening in the world. After I learned how things could be, I just never went back." Chuck didn't expect Abigail to understand. She was too young. "It's nice not having people looking up to you all the time."

"But don't you miss them?" Abigail asked again. "And don't they miss you? You're family after all."

"Sometimes I miss them and I know they miss me," Chuck said. "But they needed to learn how to live without me. I can't be there all the time to fix everything."

"Do you still love them?" Abigail asked. Chuck stared at her curiously.

"What?" he asked. Abigail swung her feet and kicked the table leg.

"Well, I feel like I should be mad at my mom and grandpa and Opiel for everything but I'm not mad. Does that mean I still love them? And shouldn't you still love your family after all the bad they've caused? They're still family, after all."

"Yes, that means you probably still love them," Chuck replied. "And I do still love my family. I'm just done with them. I thought about going back once but the time was never right."

"Uncle Sam said that there might never be a right time for something," Abigail said. "But that doesn't mean you don't try. Saying that there's not a right time is just a reason not to try.

"They'll want me to fix their world and I don't know if I can do that," Chuck protested. He was surprised by the conversation this had turned into and wondered if he should have recorded it for later use in one of his stories.

"The world doesn't need fixing all at once. Just one spot at a time," Abigail said. Her mother had said that when Abigail had tried drawing the world for a school assignment and had messed up. She had colored the water green and the earth blue and nearly started crying when she realized her mistake before her mother had shown her how to fix it. However, Mr. Chuck didn't need to know that. As long as her words sounded smart to him.

"When can I go home?" Abigail asked, deciding to not eat anymore cereal. "My family needs to be a family again."

Chuck blinked, not quite sure what the girl was saying.

"You aren't a family now?" he asked. Now he really was wishing he had recorded this for a future book.

"You can't really be a family unless you're all together," Abigail replied. "Do you have any cookies? Grandpa sometimes lets me have a cookie after breakfast."

Chuck chuckled. "Sorry, but no cookies. We can pick some up on the way to your house, though."

"We're going now?" Abigail asked, eyes lighting up.

Chuck bobbed his head as he thought. "That depends. Do you know your address?"

Chuck hoped she did. His internet connection was unreliable on the best of days and using it always drove him to drink away the day. He didn't want to drink around a kid. Already he was wanting a drink as he thought about the conversation he had just had. Specifically, his part of the conversation. The words had come out of his mouth but they weren't Chuck's words. Chuck didn't have any family, so he couldn't have described what had been coming out of his mouth. It was like someone else was speaking for him.

It was a very disturbing thought.

Abigail began rattling off her address, breaking Chuck out of his thoughts.

"Hold on, hold on!" Chuck said, looking around for a piece of paper and a pen. "Let me write it down!"

Abigail rolled her eyes but recited the address again once Chuck was ready.

"You're a smart kid," Chuck said as he put the breakfast dishes in the sink. "Or do all kids your age know their addresses?"

"We had to know it for school," Abigail said. "Aren't you going to wash your dishes?"

"I'll do it tonight," Chuck replied. Abigail looked at the pile of dishes lying in the sink. She wasn't sure that he was telling the truth.

As Chuck tried to find some clean clothes, Abigail waited in the living room. The longer she waited, the more impatient she became.

Finally the man was ready.

"Can we go? Can we go?" she asked, scrambling to her feet. Chuck nodded and shook his head as the girl rushed toward the door. They were nearly at the car when Chuck realized he had forgotten something very important. He had forgotten to grab the car keys.

Abigail rolled her eyes as the man rushed back inside. He wasn't very responsible, like her grandpa or uncle. Then Chuck came back out, keys in hand, and they were on their way.

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