“I can’t leave her, not again. Never again, Megan. I’m her big brother, I was supposed to protect her, and Christ, I failed at every turn. No wonder she hates me. I hate me too.”
“It’s gonna be okay, she just needs time.”
“No, she doesn’t owe me any more time. I mean, hasn’t she waited enough? I earned every hateful word when I stayed away. I thought I was protecting her from the man I had turned into, but instead, I left her to fend off a monster.”
“Grim,” she says softly. Grim, that’s right, my Drake is Grim now. But he’s not my Drake anymore, he’s Megan’s.
“You see these? Viper and Zero found them when I sent them back to the trailer.”
“What? I don’t understand, what trailer?”
“The one where Vida and I grew up. I sent money home and made sure it was paid off so Mama didn’t have to worry about it. I kept it all this time, hoping Viddy would know she would always have a safe place there, but she never went back.”
“I don’t think she knew, Grim. If she had, well I don’t know. Maybe it held too many memories for her, but she would have sent me there to get me off the streets, that much I’m sure of.”
“Yeah, I figured. I sent them to torch the place. Her guys are destroying the monsters from her life, but I wanted to get rid of the demons from her past. But then Zero found these hidden in a lockbox underneath a broken floorboard. It’s the letters Vida wrote. All of them. Mama didn’t mail them like she obviously told her she had, but why would she lie?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she thought she was protecting her somehow,” Megan offers.
“Don’t Megs, don’t make excuses for her. She cut me out and traded Vida’s safety for her own happiness. She was always materialistic, but I just thought it was what trailer life did to people. But it was more than that. She wanted a glamorous lifestyle, and she didn’t care who suffered on her way to reach it.”
“Have you read them?”
“I’m psyching myself up,” he admits while I still try to understand what he’s saying. Mama never mailed them. But why?
I know though. It’s everything Drake says and more because as I filter back through my memories without the veil of youthful innocence over my eyes, I see moments in time, snapshots my brain took and stored but refused to process.
Her face wincing when I flinched whenever Clyde touched me. The fleeting look of sorrow and guilt when she saw how unhappy I was or the moments I was scared. She knew. She knew what her husband was doing, and yet she stayed so she could drink champagne and wear her pretty diamonds. I guess love does have a price tag after all.
I feel numb, but not surprised. I think deep down, I always knew.
“Want me to read them to you?” she asks him softly.
I hear the sound of papers rustling before Megan’s soft voice begins reading the words penned so long ago.
Dear Drake,
It’s been forever now since I’ve seen you, when are you coming home? Mom lost her job at the diner when it got burned down last month, but she has a new one at a club in the city. She has to work nights, so she lets me stay up late and watch tv as long as I don’t answer the door for anyone. It’s kind of boring, and watching SpongeBob just makes me think of you. What’s it like where you are? I bet it’s hot. Maybe you could send me a picture. I haven’t gotten a letter in a while so I think some might be getting lost. Can you be extra careful when you write our address down? I know how messy your writing can be. I have to go now, I have school in the morning, and I have a spelling bee. Stupid David thinks he’s going to beat me, but he won’t. I’ve been practicing all week.
Anyways, love you.
Chicken.
Dear Drake,
Mom met a man at work, and she seems really happy, but she’s not here much anymore. I don’t like being on my own all the time. The tv broke last week, and there’s nothing to do once all my homework is done. Oh, I have a new book from the library though. It has a dragon in it, which everyone is afraid of, but really he’s just