Tunnels 04, Closer

that," Chester mumbled. "I'll make sure they do too."
    Shaking his head, Drake made a last effort at dissuading the boy. "You must realize how this is going to play out. Your parents aren't going to let you breeze in and then just go off again. They'll want to know where you've been all this time, and with whom -- they'll demand an explanation. But you can't tell them. Then, when you try to leave, they'll kick up one hell of a fuss and probably contact the authorities, and that's tantamount to making a direct call to the Styx."
    Chester began to say something, but Drake spoke over him.
    "And afterwards, when the alarm's been raised and you've vanished into the sunset again, the Styx will round up your parents and interrogate them to see what they know."
    "No, I'll make my mum and dad listen to me," Chester replied hoarsely. "They'll do what I ask, because they trust me."
    "It's going to take a lot more than trust," Drake said. "These are your parents we're talking about. They'll fight tooth and claw to stop you from leaving."
    Chester let out a tremulous breath. "No, I have to let them see I'm all right. I owe them that much, don't I?" He looked beseechingly at Drake, who merely shook his head again.
    "Some things are better left as they are," the man replied, but Chester had gone back to watching his house.
    "Right now, I bet my dad will be having his cup of coffee in front of the evening news on the TV. My mum will be in the kitchen, with the radio on as she makes supper. But whatever they're doing, they're probably thinking about me. You see, I'm all they've got. My sister Annie died in an accident when she was little, and there's only me. I can't let them go on suffering, believing that something terrible happened to me too. Nothing can be worse than... than the not knowing."
    Drake worked the slide of his handgun. "Well, don't say I didn't try to talk you out of it."
    Eddie started the car and edged it down the street. When he was several houses away from Chester's home, he pulled up.
    "Let's go," he said, and they all climbed out at the same time. As Drake took Eddie's place behind the steering wheel, the Styx escorted Chester along the pavement.
    "This is it," Chester said, as they reached his home.
    "Good luck," Eddie whispered, then peeled off to go around the side of the house.
    Taking a few steps up the crazy-paving path, Chester stopped to gaze at his front door. Then he noticed the blind pulled down inside the kitchen window, and that there was movement behind it. "Mum," he said, and beamed.
    He walked slowly along the remainder of the short path. Everything looked exactly the same -- the small areas of grass either side of the path had been recently cut. During the summer months his father always got the mower out on Sundays, in the evenings when it was cooler.
    Chester looked for the squat concrete frog that was poised in the border, its tongue protruding as if it was lying in wait for a concrete fly to buzz past it. The gray color of the frog, specked in places with dried lichen, was rather dull in contrast to the envelope of eye-catching flowers surrounding it. These were his mother's work -- she made regular trips to the local garden center and completely replanted the border every couple of months whether it needed it or not, choosing the brightest and most dazzling blooms. "Well, it makes me happy," she would declare to Chester's father when he inevitably queried the cost. To which he would say nothing, because if it made her happy then he was happy too.
    Nothing has stopped. Everything's gone on as usual without me , Chester realized suddenly. The rituals that were unique to the Rawls' family life, all the routines and activities that had filled the in-between times as he'd grown up were still continuing, even though he wasn't present. These touchstones to his life had persisted even though he hadn't been around to enjoy them. Part of him felt that somehow they should have come to an end, or have at least been put on hold until he returned home again, because they were his rituals too.
    These thoughts made him all the more desperate to see his parents. He wanted them to know he was still part of the family, even if he hadn't been around.
    He entered the porch, and took a second to run his hand over his hair so it wouldn't look too messy before he pressed the button.
    The sound of the bell ringing inside made his heart beat faster. He knew its loose tinkling so well.
    He heard voices.
    "I'm home!"