Let's continue right where we left off. With poor Owen wandering around the hospital! 8D

Never Go Home Again
Chapter 2: Sandcastles

Owen walked down the hall and turned. Another hall. He touched his hand to the blue stripe on the white wall and took a deep breath. He felt a sudden and gripping pang of emptiness. Something made him stop and look back. But it was gone. The couch where he'd been sitting, the empty white hall... the room... he blinked. It was gone.

But he heard the laughter. The kid that smiled at him, that called him a friend, that explained the silly movie to him. Owen smiled and started down the hall again... and then... he stopped again. He closed his eyes for a moment.

"Hey! Hey Owen!"

Owen opened his eyes and turned. He looked around quickly, feeling lost. He was in a park. A park? There was a slide and swing sets and a merry-go-round. How'd he get to a park?

"Owen!"

Owen turned again. He smiled as a familiar kid came running towards him.

Zach waved wildly as he stopped in front of Owen. "Hey Owen!" The small kid was practically bouncing on his feet.

Owen smiled again and waved back. "Hey, kiddo."

Zach smiled widely. "Did you come to play with me?"

Owen tilted his head for a moment. Then he nodded. "Yeah, sure. We can play."

Zach was beaming. "Yay!" He squealed loudly and jumped into the air.

Owen let out a laugh. "What do you want to play?"

"Can you build a sandcastle?"

Owen tilted his head. "A sandcastle?"

Zach nodded. "Yeah. There's a sand box. Follow me."

Owen smiled and followed the kid to the other side of the playground. He looked around as they walked. There were a few other kids running about, and a few parents sitting on benches. Owen absently wondered if one of them belong to Zach. He turned his attention back to kid and smiled.

The sandbox was a decent size and empty. Zach plopped down in the sand and immediately started digging through it.

Owen sat down across from him, watching. "I don't think we can build a castle." He said after a moment. "Not without like... water and a bucket."

Zach stopped and looked up at Owen. "Oh... like when I went to the beach."

"You went to the beach?"

Zach nodded. "Daddy and I built a castle."

Owen smiled. "That's nice."

Zach looked back down at the pile of sand he'd been digging up. "We can build a sand mountain."

Owen nodded. "Yeah. We can do that."

They pulled all the sand to the center of the box. Owen had to admit, it was a pretty nice sand mountain. And then suddenly, Zach was running towards it. He jumped and landed in the center and sand went flying everywhere. Owen was covered. Zach was covered. Owen was certain more sand was outside of the box now than in. And then they started laughing.

Owen stood up and pulled Zach from the destroyed sand mountain. "Why did you do that?"

Zach smiled. "It was a volcano. It erupted."

Owen shook his head and sand flew from his hair. Zach laughed loudly. Owen reached out and ruffled the kid's hair. More sand flew. Zach grabbed Owen's shirt and tugged and then Owen had Zach on the floor, tickling him. Zach was laughing and thrashing around as sand was flying off both of them. After a few minutes, Zach was breathless. Owen collapsed back on the ground beside him, laughing.

The laughing slowly petered off and Zach sat up. "I wrote about you in school."

Owen smiled. "You did?"

"I can't write." Zach admitted softly. "But I drew a picture and the teacher wrote the words."

"Oh yeah?" Owen leaned back slightly. "What was I doing? In the picture?"

"Telling me about your brother."

"My brother..." Owen repeated slowly.

Zach nodded again. "Peter."

Owen tilted his head and frowned. "Oh yeah... I have a brother named Peter."

Zach sighed. "Did you forget again?"

Owen nodded. "I didn't mean to..."

Zach shook his head. "It's Dory Disease."

Owen laughed loudly. "Yeah, I guess so."

"I'll remember for you."

Owen smiled. "How's your new brother?"

"All he does is cry!" Zach threw his arms up dramatically. "I think that's all he knows how to do. Cry."

Owen smiled. "Babies cry sometimes. They can't talk yet. It's how they express themselves."

"But he cries all the time!" Zach repeated, a whine in his voice. "You think he's broken? Can we take him back to the hospital?"

Owen laughed again and shook his head. "No, sorry. You can't. You're stuck with him."

Zach crossed his arms and slouched down. "Not fair. I gets a broken brother." He mumbled. "I bet your brother's not broken."

Owen shrugged. "He could be. I don't really remember very well..."

"His name is Peter."

Owen smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Don't let me forget. What's your new brother's name?"

"Gray." Zach said, pouting again. "It's stupid."

"Like the color?"

Zach nodded.

Owen wrinkled his nose and smiled. "Yeah. It's a silly name."

"Zach!" She was walking towards them, smiling.

Zach turned to look. "That's my mom."

Owen turned to look as well. He smiled at her and lifted his hand to wave.

But her eyes were on Zach. "Time to go, sweetie."

Zach sighed loudly. "I wanna stay and play more."

His mom turned away for a moment. She looked down at her watch, checking the time. "We really have to go. But we'll come back."

Owen smiled. "I'll come play again."

Zach smiled. "Really? You promise?"

Owen nodded. "I promise."

"Yes." Mom said, nodding her head. "Next weekend."

"Okay!" Zach said excitedly and jumped up.

"Zach!" Mom snapped. "We need to go now." She started towards the car.

Zach paused and waved at Owen. "Bye."

"Bye Zach."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

He hated school. The other kids were stupid. The teachers were stupid. Everything was stupid. His mommy and daddy were stupid. The crying baby was really stupid. And Owen was most stupid of all. Owen said he would come play again. He had promised. And Zach hadn't seen him. And it had been a while. He wasn't sure how long. He wasn't good at telling time. Clocks were hard. And calendars were harder.

But he knew it was a while. Because mom only took him to the park on not school days. And he'd been to the park as many times as his fingers on one hand. And no Owen. He hadn't seen Owen in at least five fingers. Zach was sure. It may have been more fingers. But numbers bigger than his hand were hard. But he was pretty sure it wasn't two hands worth. That would be a lot of numbers.

Zach kicked at the pavement. Daddy was late picking him up again. Daddy was usually late. He says he didn't forget. He says work runs late. But he's still late most days. Zach likes it better when mommy picks him up. Well... maybe not. Mommy brings the screaming baby. And the screaming baby was stupid!

He was standing out front of the school, waiting. There were other kids and parents there. And teachers. There was a teacher standing near the door, watching him. They were all dumb, too. Everyone was.

"Hey."

Zach looked up at the voice. Owen was standing right in front of him suddenly, smiling at him like it hadn't been five fingers. Zach frowned and looked down at the ground again, not saying anything. He didn't want to see stupid Owen.

Owen stepped closer. "Zach, hey, what's wrong?"

Zach gripped the straps of his backpack harder. "You promised." He mumbled.

Owen tilted his head. "What?"

"You promised you'd play with me." Zach answered.

"I know." Owen said, smiling again. "I'm here."

Zach looked up at him, his eyes narrowing. "I've been to the park five fingers." He held up his hand. "And you haven't been to play with me!"

Owen frowned and tilted his head. "Five fingers..."

"You broke your promise!"

Owen opened his mouth and then closed it. He stepped back and shook his head, confusion on his face.

A car pulled up right behind Owen. The window rolled down. "Zach." The man inside said.

"Hi dad." Zach said sullenly.

"Sorry." Zach's dad said, sounding genuinely late. "Ran a bit late. Get in, we'll go get ice cream."

Zach stepped around Owen and walked to the car. He didn't look back as he reached for the door handle.

Owen turned to watch him. "Wait..." He said, taking a step towards the car. "Zach! Wait a minute!"

Zach slipped in the back seat and pulled the door shut.

"Zach! Please! I'm sorry!"

Zach slouched down in the seat.

"Zach!" Owen watched the car pull away and panic suddenly gripped him. The car was gone. Zach was gone. Owen turned and looked at the school behind him. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know how he'd gotten there or how to get back. Or where he'd been. All he remembered was Zach. He turned and looked down the road. Zach said he'd broken his promise. How long had it been since the playground?

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

"Zach, what's wrong?"

Zach looked up from his bowl of ice cream. He didn't really want it. It was his favorite. Chocolate. And it had whipped cream and sprinkles and chocolate sauce and there had been a cherry on the top. He ate the cherry. That was his favorite part. But he didn't want the rest. Zach let out a sigh and dug his spoon into his bowl. He swirled it around, letting the melting ice cream mix with the whipped cream. It created funny colors where it touched the rainbow sprinkles. "Owen promised to play with me but he didn't so I yelled at him."

Daddy leaned forward a bit on the table. "Owen?"

"He promised!" Zach said loudly. "You and mommy say never to break a promise and Owen broke his promise and now we can't be friends anymore but I really like him and I want to be friends but he promised!" He finished in one breath and glared down at his ice cream again.

"You made a friend?"

Zach nodded. "His name is Owen. He has a brother named Peter. He said I should be nice to Gray because it's good to have a brother."

Daddy smiled at him. "Sounds like Owen is a good friend."

"But he broke his promise!" Zach snapped. "You aren't supposed to break promises!"

Daddy took a bit of his ice cream. "What was the promise?" He asked.

"He said he'd play with me at the park." Zach answered. "He promised!"

"Maybe it was an accident." Daddy said, dropping his spoon into his empty bowl. "Maybe he didn't mean to break it. Maybe he got in trouble or his parents wouldn't take him to the park."

Zach frowned as he thought about that. "Oh..." There were times Zach got in trouble. And then mommy and daddy wouldn't let him do things. Like the time he drew on the wall with markers and he had to stay in his room. Or when he broke the little glass box that played music that mom said not to touch. He had to sit in the corner forever!

"Did you see him at school?" Daddy asked.

Zach nodded.

Daddy smiled. "Next time you see him, ask him why he couldn't play. Ask him what happened. Or ask him over to the house to play. Maybe his parents can bring him. Or I can go meet them and bring him over."

Zach smiled slowly. "Owen can play with me? I'm my room?" His eyes widened. "With my Legos?"

Daddy let out a laugh and nodded. "See if you can get his phone number. We'll call his parents. If he doesn't know it, you give him ours. You remember it?"

Zach nodded and recited the ten digit number.

Daddy nodded. "Good job, kiddo. Now, you feel better?"

Zach nodded.

"Finish your ice cream."

Zach nodded again and took a few bites of the melted dessert. He did feel better. Daddy was smart. Daddy said Owen didn't mean to break his promise. That meant they could still be friends!

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Author's Notes: 8D I love kid Zach. 8D