"You know, whenever we go to these kinds of places, I always get plain vanilla with nothing else on it. I'm pretty boring, aren't I?"

William didn't so much as grace him with a huff. His eyes were glassy, and though his gaze was locked on the radiator, Thaddeus doubted he could see it.

"What kind do you want? I read some really good reviews online about this place. You ever tried Superman flavored ice cream?"

They'd driven halfway across the city. The tears had stopped, but not for William's lack of trying. With the way things had gone down, maybe he now hated the city with all his heart too. Even born of different seeds, they still seemed to fall from the same tree.

Thaddeus parked the car. A smiling, glowing neon ice cream cone stared at him. Its stick arms were thrown up in joy. Next to it sat a flashing open sign that was almost as bright.

"Maybe I'll just tell them to surprise me." He pulled his phone out from his pocket. "Here, I'll pull up the menu." His hands shook as he pulled up the Safari app.

"I'm not hungry." William's voice was soft but clear.

"That's a relief. Truthfully, I wasn't feeling up to this either. But there's always tomorrow."

William leaned his head against the window. When Thaddeus looked into his eyes, all he saw was his face reflected back at him.

He sank further into his seat. "While I never knew the exact details, what your social worker helped me to piece together made me never want to come here."

"You can say you told me so."

"William…" He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. Beneath him, William lay limp as a ragdoll. "This wasn't your fault. It was stupid of me to think I could stop you from finding out about this."

Oh, but if he only could have.

"I'm sorry I made you come here, Dad."

How many times had he said something along the same lines? "Dad, I'm so sorry you're in a wheelchair because of me. Sorry I couldn't have been a better son." Sorry this, sorry that, and what had it ever gotten him other than a slap so hard that his ears rang?

"Don't think you're free of me yet. I spent good money on those plane tickets. If I must drag you to the Love statue and the zoo, I'll damn well do it." That didn't even get a grin. "There are some wonderful museums around here too. We went to some of them when you were a kid. About how well do you remember them?"

William shrugged.

"Oh, come on! I took the whole week off to come and do this. Don't tell me you're going to force me back into the office." The smile was so quick that if Thaddeus had blinked, he wouldn't have caught it. "There has to be something here you want to do."

"I might have some ideas."

"Like what?"

"Well…"


"Dad, if I fell into the tiger pit, would you jump in to try and save me?"

"Should I be nervous since you're asking that question?"

Billy - William - laughed. "Just wanted to check." He stepped forward, eyeing the sleeping tiger's chest as it rose and fell. This was a new addition, though they'd seen the one from when he was younger earlier that day. According to a nearby sign, it had been saved from poaching when it was just a cub and brought here to recover.

"Can we get something to eat after this? I'm hungry."

"As long as it's not on the endangered species list, everything here is fair game."

William rolled his eyes. "I was hoping we could get popcorn and go to one of the dolphin shows."

"Sounds fine to me." His dad wrapped his arm around his shoulders.


Thaddeus had to force his ice cream down. Superman ice cream was certainly something.

"Can I try some?" William asked. He was already halfway through his chocolate explosion.

Thaddeus pushed his bowl forward with his index finger and thumb. "Take as much as you'd like."

It had been four days since they'd arrived in Philadelphia, and just then it almost felt like home again. Suddenly it didn't matter that his father's name graced one of the city's largest employers. Nor could Thaddeus bring himself to think of what had happened the first night that they arrived. The sins were right – William had needed to face that, himself too.

This? Well, he could have lived without that aftertaste.

"Are you sad to be heading back home tomorrow?"

"Not really. It's kind of cold here."

Thaddeus chuckled. "The weather here has a mind of its own sometimes." He pulled out his phone and absently flicked through pictures he'd taken over the last few days. "Hopefully this made for a halfway memorable spring break. It was either this or Florida."

William's eyes widened. "Can we go to the NASA station next year?"

"Sounds like a great idea to me!"


Thaddeus came back to a pile of mail and ten patient interviews to watch. He absently eyed a stack of envelopes as his messaging machine played back a week of missed calls. He was about to delete a sales call when the phone rang, causing the machine to vibrate.

He picked it up without checking the number, his eyes absently wondering his office. Little had changed since he left.

"Thad?"

His lungs suddenly emptied of all air.

"Thad, is that you? I'm hoping this is the correct number. I was just calling to say that I found out you were in Philly a few days ago. I couldn't really believe it. You know, it would have been nice if you'd called."

Thaddeus pushed the phone back into its holder and hurried out of his office.