Chapter Sixteen

Return

Richard tears up one sheet of paper from his file. He writes down a mail address on several strips, giving them out to the boys of cells one and two. They want to keep in touch with one another through letters. They all know that it's probably going to be a tough couple of months for them all. They have to fit in with their normal lives again. Writing letters of frustration to each other will help them when they are apart from each other.

The inmates break apart and walk in their desired directions.

Richard thought he would never see Gemma again. But now here he is, standing in the hallways of his old boarding home. He wanders around in the girls' wing even though he knows he's not supposed to be here. He couldn't wait though. He has to see Gemma now, just to make sure this isn't some dream.

The girls push around him and the older ones giggle as they see him, the long skirts of their dresses dragging along the ground. He only pushes forward, looking for Gemma. He comes to the final room in this hallway. The door at the end is partially open. He peeks inside and spots the familiar dark and streaky hair of his beloved sister. She's sitting on her bed, staring at a wrinkled photo in her hands. He quietly knocks on the door. She looks up from where she is. It takes her a moment to recognize the large and now near adult male who stands at her doorway. Her blue eyes look up at his and then light up.

"Richard!" she says and leaps off her bed and into his arms. "You're back!" She grips him tightly around the neck as he grips her around the waist, lifting her off her feet.

"Of course I'm back," he says. "You didn't think I would leave you forever, did you?"

"Well, Ms. Spinner told me that you were gone forever and that you were never coming back because you were a bad person," she says and clings all the tighter to him.

"Don't believe a word from that woman," he says sternly. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

Gemma nuzzles her head on his shoulder and goes silent for a moment. "Richard?"

"Yes, Gem?"

"I missed you," she says quietly.

"I missed you, too," he answers.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

The happy, little, family reunion is just how Richard imagined it while he was in Seablite. They talk for hours afterwards. Richard remains vague on the details about Seablite. He says it was quite boring and nothing quite interesting happened. He's grateful for his Gift so he is able to hide the scar on his bald head. She notices that he has no hair. He answers that inmates at that prison had to keep their hair shaved.

"And this is where you'll stay for now," Ms. Spinner says as she leads Richard to his room which is already inhabited by three other young men around his age. "You'll get two sets of new clothes in the morning as well." She stops him before he enters the room. "Don't mess this up, boy. I can still send you back."

Richard looks down at her defiantly. He's been through too much to have a simple threat like that scare him. "You do that, Spinner," he taunts. "You do that. Now, if you'll excuse me." He pushes past her and enters the room. One bunk remains open, a bottom one. He takes it and sits down. Ms. Spinner stutters for words, but quickly leaves. Richard looks up at his new roommates. They all look much smaller than him. If they know what's good for them, they'll steer clear and leave him alone."

It isn't easy adjusting to life in the boarding home. After being away for four years, Richard finds that he misses life under the waves. He misses the sounds of the ocean and, sadly, the creaking of the prison. The sounds of cars on the streets and lots of people bruise his ears. It's just going to take some time to readjust. He can do it. In a week or two, everything will be back to normal, just the way it should be. He'll forget all about Doc and Seablite. He'll have a normal life and Gemma will always be there. Everything is going to be fine.

He settles down for the night which is the first night he's slept in a boarding home in four years. The mattress is worn down and feels like he's lying on just the wooden planks that support the mattress. The pillow is lumpy and the blanket is scratchy, but he's had to live with this in the prison as well. It's nothing he isn't used to. It's just at the prison the stuff was all new. This stuff here has been used by numerous kids. It's no longer new.

Richard thinks that since he's away from the prison, he should have an easier time falling asleep. In the prison he would only get a few hours of sleep. He assumed that it was because he was in a different environment and it would take a while to get used to. Apparently his inability to sleep for long hours followed him back to the home.

He lies awake in his bed for hours on end. Maybe he can't sleep because he's too worried about all the other inmates, his friends. Many of the younger inmates asked him what they were supposed to do when they set foot on dry land. He told them that they should go back to their own homes and pretend that nothing had happened, pretend like the prison let them go. Peter walked off to his home with his guardian uncle. Eli went back to the boarding home where he had said he lived. Ace left quickly and quietly. He wanted everything just to be done with. Henry, Kyle, Matt, and Trevor they all left to go back to their former homes.

He left them all behind to go back to see Gemma, and that thought alone ate him up. He left them without making sure they would be fine without him. He grew attached to them all since they all needed each other to make it through the dark times. It's strange not being with them all for the first time in four years. It's going to take some getting used to, but everything will be fine afterwards.

With it being summer, there is no school to go to or subjects to learn. It's not like he will learn much anyways. He hasn't learned anything in four years. He is way behind in his learning and probably won't be able to catch up without some serious help that Ms. Spinner probably won't provide. So he spends much of his time catching up with Gemma. He missed her growing up. When he left, she was eight. Now she's twelve, coming up on thirteen, a big year for her. Her birthday is in a few months. He wants to give her something special for that one. He's never had the money to buy fancy gifts for her. They simply didn't have it. Their parents had money saved away, but Richard won't be able to touch that until he's twenty-one, a whole three years away. Usually he would treat her to a night in one of the quality time rooms, but that was the reason why he was locked up in Seablite in the first place. He won't be doing that again anytime soon.

"So what was prison like?" she asks in a small voice.

Richard looks down at her from where they are sitting on the floor. Like usual, they look for spots with room to talk which often meant they sat on the floor in one of the many hallways of the home. "Boring," he answers quickly. "Really boring. I got to sit in my cell day in and day out, all day long."

"That does sound boring," she says and holds onto his hand. "Remind me never to go to prison."

"I will always remind you," he says. "You are not going to go to a prison."

She looks up at him with big, blue eyes. "Does that mean no more quality time?"

"'Fraid so, Gem," he says and reaches up to tug on her long braid affectionately. "I know it was fun and all, but we have to find different ways to have fun and spend time together. Besides, we have a lot of stuff to catch up on. We'll have plenty to talk about for the next while."

"That sucks," she says. "At least I have you back."

Richard smiles, but the smile is forced. He longer feels like smiling anymore. What's there to smile about in the world? His future is already laid out before him. Most likely he will get a low end job when he turns twenty-one. He will do what he can for Gemma, getting her the education and stuff she needs to have a good life, a life he will never have. The jobs he will most likely have are as followed: sanitation worker (garbage man), an errand boy for some person high up in society, a chauffeur for a person high up in society (if he can get his driver's license), or (if he can get to the ocean) a fish gutter. Most of the jobs will serve people that will always be seen as better than him. He will always be looked down upon. As long as Gemma doesn't have that life, it'll all be worth it.