The Between Years

undone. What his weight issues must have done to his self-esteem must have been awful, he thought, and his heart ached for him.

    What he had done in the four between years was anyone's guess, he figured. Not knowing the type of person he'd been to Kenny left him feeling helpless. Moreover, he wanted to believe that he'd always been a perfect father who had never judged his son.

    “ So, what do you say, pal?” Randy asked. “You with me?”

    “ I say you still haven't kept your promise!” Kenny's chest heaved in and out and his breathing became very loud. He'd been so consumed by Kenny's weight problems that he'd all but forgotten about Carol.

    “ I'm working on that,” Randy said, “and I really want to make it happen. I just need a bit more time.”

    “ It's been years since I've seen her and I'm starting to think you'll never let me see her again!”

    Tears now rolled from Kenny's eyes; Randy advanced to wrap his arms around his son, but the boy jumped to his feet, and his end of the mattress sprang up with him. He stomped towards the door and slammed it behind him. Randy chased his son and shouted, “Kenny, wait up!”

    When he yanked the door open, he saw that Kenny had already disappeared, but he'd never heard his feet pound the floor or the stairs. Randy checked each room to find it empty then flew down the stairs after him. He was nowhere to be found on the main floor, so he popped out the back door and checked the grounds. The boy had disappeared on him like he'd never been there, and Randy was certain the boy couldn't be that fast.

    Randy slammed the door behind him when he returned inside. He crawled back upstairs and paused in the hall before he backed up against the newel post and slid to the floor. When his ass hit the hardwood, he hugged his knees and struggled not to cry. He worried that he'd really blown it this time. After several opportunities to bring him his mother, he'd come up short. Randy tried to tell himself that he'd had his reasons, none of which were his selfishness, but he failed to convince even himself. Now Kenny might never appear to him again and it was all his fault.

    More than anything, he wanted to help the boy. His health would take a turn for the worse if he couldn't turn his lifestyle around. He wanted to tell him as much, but how would receive the opportunity? He knew he could have said and done things in the between years to lose Kenny's confidence that he truly cared about him.

    And his son was suffering. He hated to dwell on those words: his suffering. But he couldn't deny that he'd been tormented, inside and out. His emotions were battered from the teasing he'd taken at school, and he felt empty inside from his relationships at home. If he hadn't see Carol in years, he must feel lost to try and fill the void, Randy decided.

    And he was angry. Perhaps the most potent emotion he was feeling was the bubbling anger he'd directed at Randy for constantly disappointing him. Randy worried that he couldn't soothe that anger unless he could snap his fingers and make Carol materialize before him.

    If Kenny had disappeared then where had he gone? Randy asked himself. After everything he'd experienced, he wondered if the boy could have vanished into thin air. If Kenny was omnipotent, he could have escaped into the walls and go there every time he was upset and needed solace. But how did he get in there? He wondered. And how did he escape?

    Randy climbed to his feet, pressed his ear to the wall, and tapped on it. “Come on, little buddy, don't be mad. If you come out of there we can talk this out.”

    Then he knocked a little harder, so Kenny was sure to hear him, but stopped because he knew that Kenny would need time to cool off.

    Then he wondered if he'd been in the walls all this time. For all he knew, the boy was growing up in the walls, and letting his age accelerate years with each passing day. Randy knew it was true. Kenny was one with the house, and vice versa, and the two were inseparable. He wanted to pull him out of there before he'd lived his entire life without ever seeing his mother again.

    Randy staggered backwards and resumed his position on the floor. He wrapped his arms around his legs and wondered how the hell he would ever fish his boy out of the walls. If Kenny could find a way in, so could Randy, he decided. He stared at the wall for what seemed like hours and decided it was only a matter of time.

CHAPTER 22
    Randy's back ached and his