After Sheryl left, Dwayne walked into his room. Frank was sitting on his cot, looking at his nephew. "Did you really tell her to ask me, or did she figure that there was something wrong and that I knew what on her own?" asked Frank.
"I told her, she needed to know, but I didn't think that I could tell her myself." Dwayne sighed before tumbling onto his own bed, and sitting on it. Frank walked over to him and sat by him on the bed.
"You did the right thing soldier, I'm proud of you." Frank patted him on the back. Dwayne chose to remain silent for a few minutes.
"How did mom take it?" Dwayne asked finally.
"Well, she cried, and she was shocked, but she was glad to find out about it."
"What do you think she's gunna do about it?"
"Well, she'll probably try to find you a therapist, or a doctor of some sort, and she'll probably monitor your whereabouts a bit more. Hey, are you ok?"
"No, well not right now, but I will be…eventually…I think," Dwayne sighed, hoping everything would shape up ok in the end. "Has mom told you yet?"
"Told me what?" Dwayne saw a look of utter confusion on Frank's face.
"That um, well, that I'm leaving." Dwayne choked over the words as they tumbled out of his mouth.
"Leaving where?"
"Here, I'm leaving this place, Albuquerque."
"Well then where are you going to go?"
"I'm going to live with my dad in Florida. He's coming up tonight. He and mom are going to try to work something out so that I can go without a law suit, but if it comes down to it, dad's going to take her to court for custody rights." Frank's facial expression changed drastically. The confusion vanished and turned to a look of blatant shock.
"Are you serious?" Frank stared at him.
"Yeah, I am."
"Why?"
"I just can't do this anymore, I can't live here! Not with Richard."
"Well, the last bit is understandable." Frank nodded.
"I just have to get out of here, out of this miserable little hell hole, do you know what I mean?"
"Well that's all well and good, but what about us? What about me and Olive? I like having you around! You are the only one who even remotely understands me in this house!"
"Then come with me. You can leave now, as long as someone is supervising you, and that would be me." Dwayne stood and looked at Frank seriously.
"Dwayne, you know I can't do that, besides, you don't really want to leave Olive with just Richard and Sheryl, do you?" Dwayne sat back down and gave what his uncle said a great a deal of thought.
"I don't actually know. For the first time in her life, it would be just the three of them. It might actually be good for her." Dwayne spoke slowly; he was still mulling the idea around in his head. "She might be able to get to know her parents, finally, and maybe they would have a shot at becoming a functioning family. Frank, now that Grandpa's gone, you and I are the only ones who don't fit in here, we don't belong here," Dwayne insisted.
"Just out of curiosity, if he wasn't your real grandfather, then why do you refer to him as grandpa?" asked Frank, trying the best to avoid the previous subject.
"I dunno actually. I guess he just treated me like a read grandson. At least he treated me like a real grand son a lot more then Richard treats me like a real son." Dwayne shrugged. This thought had never crossed his mind before, he had always called him grandpa, it just came naturally to him. "Anyway, back to what I said before, we are the misfits here, what do you think?"
"I think that both of us leaving at once, especially so soon after Edwin's passing, would just be too much for Olive and Sheryl to handle, although, I'm sure Richard would be over the moon about it." The two of them sat in silence, both thinking about what Dwayne had proposed.
"Well, I'm going to go grab breakfast, do you want to come?" Frank stood.
"No, I don't really feel like facing mom at all, at least not right this second."
"Ok, well do you want me to bring you anything from the kitchen?" Dwayne shook his head no. "Well you have to eat sometime you know."
"Fine, just get me an apple or something then."
"Will do." Frank walked out to the kitchen, returning a couple minutes later with four or five pieces of toast ant two oranges. "Sorry, out of apples, hope this works. Catch." He threw one of the oranges to Dwayne, who caught it perfectly.
"Thanks," he took a shallow bite into the rind, and started peeling it from the tiny pocket that he had made with his teeth. Frank went to work eating his toast, pulling the crusts off as he went.
"So you really are serious about this, aren't you?" Frank looked at Dwayne.
"Yeah, I am, but I am kind of worried about Olive. Promise me that you will take really good care of her when I leave?" Dwayne took a section of his orange and bit in to it, squinting his left eye shut as some of the juice squeezed into it.
"I promise, but don't neglect her, ok? Write a lot, and call a lot. She needs to know that you still love her, that you still care about her."
"Of course I will. Despite how this move makes it sound, I still really, really care for her. She will always be on my mind, I don't think that I could escape it if I wanted to." Dwayne sighed. He knew that he was giving the impression that he didn't care about his family, he did, it just wasn't working for him at the moment.
"I know, she's a great little girl, it's hard not to like her." Frank smiled, and the corners of Dwayne's mouth turned up slightly.
"Well, she is a very special little girl to say the very least. She will be the hardest thing to leave behind." Dwayne sighed. "I just wish that she could come with me. You know, I really love her, but she's the only one here who I care about." Dwayne bowed his head and ran his fingers through his hair, sighing deeply yet again.
"You can't she needs her family, her real family. Whether you know it or not Dwayne, you love your family, Sheryl, and Olive for sure, and your dad. I don't know about Richard, but you have been living with him for the last…" Frank trailed off.
"10 years, Frank, 10 years."
"Right, for the last 10 years of your life, meaning that you two have some kind of understanding, whether it is just weird, or whether it is a friendship, or some other bond, he is in some way your family."
"He's not my fucking family, alright? Not a bit, not even a little bit! We have nothing in common, NOTHING! He hates me; he just wants me out of here so he can have my mom and Olive, a perfect trophy family. There is no bond between us, there is nothing, ok? Just get that in your head, ok?" Dwayne didn't even realize that he was yelling at Frank until the words were out of his mouth. He hoped that he hadn't attracted the attention of anyone else in the family. "I'm sorry; I guess I didn't even realize I was yelling."
"It's ok, you are having a rough time right now, just know that you are strong, you can get through this, and whether you go with your father or stay here with us, you will make the right decision."
"Yeah, well, whatever." Dwayne massaged his forehead briefly.
"Are you sure you are going to be ok?" Frank looked at Dwayne intently. "You don't look to good."
"How so?"
"You are all pale, and you look tired, and weak." Frank told Dwayne what he was seeing, and nothing more.
"Really? Well, I will end up being ok. I'm not sick, I'm just stressed out right now. I…" Dwayne paused. "I just don't really know where to go with all of this."