Mind and Vision by InSilva
Disclaimer: don't own Danny. Like to see anyone try that.
Chapter Three: Change
It was a great day.
Alexander Lowmen had left at the start of the week and Danny was so glad to see him gone. He thought he could go cheerfully through life without ever meeting Alexander again.
Cole and Randall were off at a high-profile sporting event and not expected back to the evening and that was never a disappointment.
His mother was out shopping for something shiny or pretty and in no way practical.
His father had not come downstairs at all. Mr Lawrenson, his father's lawyer had arrived and gone upstairs but his father had not come down at all.
All this meant that Danny had the run of the house. Even so, he gravitated towards the kitchen where there was Maria's baking to be eaten and there were Luis's stories to be heard.
"I ever tell you about the time Felipe and I went to the caves up above our village?"
Yes, Luis had. The caves and the long drop down and the rope and the whisper of treasure.
"I'm not sure," Danny lied, biting into a warm, soft cookie, the chocolate melting inside his mouth. "Why don't you tell me again?"
Many Felipe stories of love and laughter and friendship. Stories that painted pictures that Danny could see, conversations that Danny could hear, happiness that he wanted.
Alongside the stories, there were many games of cards where Danny could show Luis how much attention he'd paid to all those lessons on how to deal from anywhere in the pack and the need to keep his face unfathomable.
"Muy bien, Danny," Luis smiled. "You are a clever young man."
Lunch in the kitchen – fresh bread and beef stew - and a whispered conversation between Luis and Maria that Danny noticed but didn't bother himself overly with. He was too busy enjoying the stew.
The happy day had to end.
His mother had returned and gone straight to her room and Cole and Randall had arrived back and demanded food and drink.
"Time for bed, Danny," Maria suggested, running a hand over his hair.
Danny sighed and nodded. Maybe tomorrow would be as good a day as this had been.
It wasn't.
He woke to confusion and flurry: his mother running past his door, wide-eyed and worried; Cole and Randall hurrying down the corridor, muttering together in low tones.
"What is it?" Danny asked but Randall simply wrinkled his nose at him and the glare from Cole was enough to suggest Danny would be wise not to interrupt them again.
He dressed himself and made his way down the stairs to find Maria coming up them.
"Oh, Danny," she said and her voice was full of sympathy. She folded him to her and he allowed her to embrace him though he had no clue why.
She led him down to the kitchen and Luis and over a kitchen table with a warm mug of cocoa, Danny learned that his father had passed away in the night.
Later and there were tears from his mother and public words of regret murmured by Cole and Randall and neither seemed very sincere to Danny.
Maria hugged him tightly and whispered fierce words of comfort though he didn't feel any great pain and he remained dry-eyed even through the funeral. His father had been distant and old and not bothered with him: Danny would have felt much more grief if he could have been convinced that his father remembered his existence other than on high days and holidays when convention forced everyone into the same room.
In the days that followed when he found himself down in the kitchen even more than normal, he didn't understand the worried looks that were exchanged between Luis and Maria and he didn't realise that all things that he treasured were in precarious balance because of the catalyst of his father's death.
He didn't understand the dreamy way his mother moved through the house, her fingers clutching at her jewels.
He didn't know why Cole and Randall were shooting him little smiles of triumph.
He overheard Randall saying "At last we can get rid of the little bastard-" but when he caught sight of Danny, he shut up like a clam.
Something was happening and Danny didn't know what and the anxiety raged within him.
Then there was a morning where the family congregated in a small room from which Danny was excluded. He sat in a chair outside and kicked his heels and by the time he was called into the room, his future was decided without any say from him.
Mr Lawrenson beckoned him in and he saw Cole and Randall and his mother sitting as respectfully as society would demand, surrounded by an air of self-satisfaction.
"Now, then, Danny," Mr Lawrenson said kindly. "I've explained some of this a few days ago informally to your mother and your brothers-"
"Half-brothers." The correction was out before Danny could stop himself and Mr Lawrenson flicked a polite but annoyed little smile.
"Half-brothers. Yes." Mr Lawrenson consulted the paperwork in front of him. "Your father has made sure that all of you are well looked after financially. Well…" he hesitated as if trying to work out whether Danny would actually understand all the details.
Danny stuck his chin out defiantly and Mr Lawrenson had continued. There was money and plenty of it. Cole and Randall were set up for life. His mother, her eyes demurely on the carpet, was never going to starve.
As for him…it was complicated. There was a trust. Danny's educational future was secure. The trust would pay for fees and an allowance up until he graduated. Once he graduated, whatever money was still held in the trust would be released and shared between him and the trustees. The trustees were his mother, Cole and Randall.
"Wish you were older," Randall muttered. "Having to wait for you to wade through high school…don't suppose you could sit your exams early…?"
Danny glared at him. "Cushing's likes its students to be well-prepared," he said stoutly and then caught sight of the sudden evasion in Randall's face.
"What is it?" he demanded but Randall was busy studying wallpaper. "Mother?" he asked uncertainly, but his mother was twisting her fingers together, a sign that she really didn't want to be part of the conversation.
Danny looked at Cole who was the only one meeting his gaze.
"You're not going to Cushing's," Cole said.
Speechless, Danny stared at him. Cushing's Academy was where his father had studied, where Cole and Randall had studied, where he was going to study.
"I've got the uniform," he whispered ridiculously and he had, he had… He'd stood and been measured and kitted out and there'd been another boy – Ethan – who was also going to be new and they'd laughed together over the socks and the blazers and the ties and the adventure they were both embarking on. Danny had hoped Ethan might turn out to be a good friend.
"Don't worry about the uniform," Cole told him. "Your mother says she has the receipts."
"I'm-"
"You're not going to Cushing's," Cole said again and Danny marched over to stand in front of him.
"You don't get to decide-" he began hotly.
"Actually, I do," Cole said smoothly. "Well, we do." He indicated Randall and Danny's mother. "And we've chosen an excellent preparatory school with much more reasonable fees."
He handed Danny a prospectus and Danny looked at pictures of steel and glass, a modern building a million miles away from the ivy-covered walls and extensive grounds that defined Cushing's.
"It doesn't have quite the exam success that Cushing's does," Cole went on, "but it's important to encourage these modern endeavours."
Danny hardly heard him. He was busy staring at the one salient fact on the prospectus cover.
"This is in Texas," he said flatly.
"So it is," Cole nodded.
Danny looked at him. "That's the other side of the country."
Cole shrugged. "Nothing wrong with your geography."
"But…" Incredulity was running over Danny's face like a wash of raindrops.
"This place makes provision for all vacations and it's not like you were going to be coming back here much anyway," Randall suggested.
No, but Cushing's was an hour's drive away at most. If he'd wanted to, he could get back on the bus with relative ease. And he'd have been back at some point and there would be Luis and Maria and Texas could have been on another planet and he'd never see them again at all and he couldn't lose Luis and Maria… He looked up at Cole and hated himself for what he was about to say.
"Please, Cole. I-I… Please, Cole."
Cole simply smiled and Danny gave up the battle and looked over at the others. Appealing to Randall was pointless but surely, surely his mother would understand. He dropped to the floor in front of her and grabbed her hands and begged her with passion and desperation.
"Please, mother, please. I've never asked for anything but please don't send me away."
His mother disentangled her hands and looked faintly disapproving as if the outburst of emotion was more than she could handle.
"I'm sure Cole knows what's best for you, Danny. Now get up before you make a hole in your clothes." She sounded more distant than ever.
Flushed, he got to his feet and he had to get out of there. He walked in a dream towards the door.
"You leave a week on Monday," Cole called after him and he wasn't going to cry in front of anyone.
Alone in his room, he looked down at the prospectus and hot tears flowed.
The final horror was yet to come.
"We're realising our assets," Cole said smoothly over breakfast the next day. "Your mother doesn't want to be surrounded by memories and neither Randall nor I care much for this place. So when you pack, you'd better take everything you care about with you."
The house was being put up for sale. This in itself was no great sorrow but the consequences were and when he'd realised, Danny had galloped from the breakfast table and pelted full length down the corridors to find Luis. He'd wrapped his arms around the man and sobbed and sobbed and then Maria had been there and there had been tears all round.
"We'll be fine, Danny," Luis promised. "We'll find another situation and we'll be fine."
A vision of Luis and Maria working for another family, making friends with another little boy, flashed before Danny's eyes and some of it must have showed on his face.
"We won't ever forget you," Luis said fiercely and Maria said more in voluble Spanish accompanied by hugs and kisses.
"I'm going here," Danny said, writing out the name of the Texan school with a shaky hand. "Please write to me from wherever you go to. Please. And then I can write to you."
Luis and Maria looked at each other. "We're not great letter writers, Danny," Luis began.
"Please!" And he was as passionate and as desperate as he had been with his mother.
"We will write," Maria told him solemnly and he was comforted. She had made it sound like a vow.
Luis put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "You're a good boy, Danny, and you have a good heart. Remember what counts."
He would. He would. And on that Monday, as he started the journey that would take him to the new school, he told himself over and over that he would never forget what mattered in this world. Who mattered in this world. Because some things - some people - were worth remembering.