Ding!
Troy bolted out of bed and into the living room. He balled up his fist, as if to fight. Once again, his fight-or-flight senses picked up. His eyes got wide, pupils got small, his heart and breathing raced, and his entire body was tense.
Drip, drip, drip...
He shifted his head toward the faucet.
Drip...
He turned the knob to the right and turned the water off completely, wiping the faucet with his finger as he sighed completely.
He looked at the clock on the wall.
It was 8:30 in the morning and still the same day.
Ding!
He looked towards the door.
Walking slowly towards the door, he looked out of the eyehole. A short, chunky-looking man stood outside, carrying a bag on his side and had a blue ball cap on. He sighed and pressed the doorbell again.
Troy opened the door.
"Package delivery... " The man said. "Are you Mr. Troy Bolton?"
Troy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"Are you over eighteen?"
"I'm 20."
"ID please." He held his grubby hand out.
Troy reached in his back pocket. He pulled his wallet out and pulled his driver's license out of the front pocket, handing it to the man.
The main quickly glanced at the ID and then handed Troy back his ID. "Alright, sign here." He handed Troy a sheet of paper and a pencil.
Troy heard a couple footsteps behind him.
"Talon, what are you doing?" Troy looked back.
His blue night jumper that zipped in the front was completely unzipped. He dragged his blue silky blanket behind him and held his sippy in the same hand. He yawned and looked up at Troy.
"Go lay back down." Troy said softly. "I'll be right there little man."
He didn't listen. Instead, he plopped himself on the floor and waited for Troy, taking a drink of his milk.
He signed off on the package, and then the mailman handed him some of his mail, too. "And here's your daily mail. Thought I would give it to you because your mailbox is full."
"I just checked it yesterday... " Troy scratched his head. "Or was that the day before... Or maybe it was a week ago... "
"Have you been drinking?" The man raised one of his hairy eyebrows.
"No, no... " Troy lied. "My friend was over last night and left a can of beer here. I spilled it on myself just a couple seconds ago, so now I smell like alcohol."
"You shouldn't be drinking around that kid of yours."
"I'm not drinking!" Troy insisted. "I don't have to explain myself to you."
"You already did." The man sucked on the side of his mouth. "So why are you drinking?"
"I wasn't drinking!" Troy looked over at Talon. "I love my son, and I would never put him in danger. His mom commited suicide because she thought he was dead. Jesus christ, I've had him since he was born. I stayed up until four in the morning every god damn night trying to get him to stop screaming in my face. I skipped football practice to stay with him because his daycare was closed. I spent 1400 dollars last Christmas for him. You think I would really put him through hell? Now, get the fuck away from me and have a nice day."
Troy slammed the door in the man's face.
"Screw people. They have no business invading my life." He looked over at Talon. "Don't trust anyone, Talon. First thing I'm going to teach you. You can't trust a god damn person that walks past you. I can't even trust my mom and dad. But you can trust me." Troy set the mail on the couch and lifted Talon up. "I'll never judge you, whether you kill someone, wreck the brand new car I just bought you, or even go out and get a girl pregnant. I've been there. That's how you got here. I got your mom pregnant when she was fourteen. Long story, Tal. I'll have to tell you when you get older and you understand it more." Troy kissed Talon's cheek as he sat down on the couch with him. "I love you and you're the most important thing of my life. Don't forget that, Talon. Now, gimme a kiss."
Talon whipped around toward Troy and puckered his lips, leaned forward and gave Troy a wet, sloppy kiss on the lips.
Troy chuckled and wiped his lips off with the sleeve of his shirt. "Those lips are gonna keep the girls away if you don't learn how to keep the spit in your mouth."
Talon climbed off of Troy's lap and layed his head on the pillow by the arm of the couch. Troy grabbed his blanket and covered him up and handed him his sippy cup.
Troy turned his attention to his mail.
He picked up the stack of letters and started going through them.
"Phone bill, rent, gas bill, electric bill, college mathematics opportunities- " He cut himeslf off. "Oh hell, all these are just receipts for the payments... "
He threw all the letters away.
He grabbed the package. It filled both of his arms, and wasn't very heavy.
It was addressed to Troy, but had no address.
He pulled the tape off and flipped open the sides of the box. Inside was a letter and a ton of bubble wrap.
He pulled out a teddy bear that was medium-brown and had white under its paws and on its chest and nose. It had little x's and o's under its white feet. It was a little bigger than Troy's hand, and was filled with bean-bag balls. He next pulled out a medium-sized glass corked bottle with sand and a couple shells in it. Taped to it was three sheets of stapled paper. Under that was a photo album. He didn't look at that too much. He just set it aside. The last thing that came out of the package was a birthday card and a snow-globe.
He opened the letter and held it in front of him.
Dear Troy,
I don't know if this is the right address, so if it isn't, please send the package back. If this is the right address and this is my baby Troy, I want you to know this is mom. I haven't talked to you ever since you called right before Gabriella gave birth to your daughter. The next thing I know, my neighbor, who is friends with Gabriella's parents, tell me that Gabriella commited suicide and that your guys' daughter was stillborn. I never got a call after the baby was born. Your father and I tried to call many times, but your cell number said it was disconnected. We tried desperately to get into contact with you. We even called LSU guidance, but they didn't give us any information. We went through Baton Rouge phonebooks, called 411, and we still couldn't get a hold of you. We even drove down there and knocked on the door, but still didn't get any answer. We figured you had moved away and changed your number, but we weren't sure.
Gabriella's parents wanted us to give you a couple things of Gabriella's to remember her by. The teddy bear is the teddy bear she carried around with her until she went into Junior High. They wrote x's and o's on the bottom of its feet because she used to be very attached to them and she used to cry at school because of it. She loved that teddy bear very much. She called it "Teddiursa" after the Pokemon, because when she was little and pokemon first came out, she loved it. The second thing is a bottle of sand with some shells. That sand is from Little Pine Island in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico. Just before she got pregnant she went with her uncle to her first beach in Florida. She loved it. She even wrote a story about it, which is attached to it. The next thing is a scrapbook of Gabriella, from the time she was still inside her mother up until a little while before she came to live with us. We also sent you a birthday present and a card for your last birthday.
Honey, we miss you. We understand that you're grieving the loss of your daughter and that you're very, very upset. We want a call, just one call to let us know where you are and you're safe. Please, I beg you. Just one call, sweetheart. I'll leave my phone number at the bottom of the letter.
I love you very, very much.
Mom.
Troy set the letter down, and looked over at Talon, who was fast asleep. He got up, took the scrapbook, and set it on a shelf where he would see it and eventually look at it. The bottled sand with the paper he set on the mantle of the fake fireplace he had installed in the wall and set the paper behind the sand. The next two objects, the snowglobe and the birthday card, he set beside the sand, setting the birthday card under the snowglobe.
He placed the bubble wrap gently in the box and folded it up, setting it aside.
He forgot one thing.
The teddy bear.
He picked it up and ran his finger across the soft fur. He picked Talon's arm up a little and slipped the bear under Talon's arm.
He pulled his phone out.
And without any hesitation, he called them.