White Space Season 1

children were three. Well, three and 13. Those were the two years when I just didn’t want to do it any more. But I promise,” she winked, “it does get a whole lot better.”
    The painkillers mostly numbed the pain outside, but the pain inside Milo’s body was far worse. The thought of Mrs. Marshall flooded Milo with fresh memories of his mother, and twisted the pain in his body closer to torment.
    He could be dead.
    Like the Marshalls. Or his mother. Or Jessica. Or Manny.
    Home promised plenty more misery, but it would still be better than lying alone in the hospital, where everyone seemed to agree Milo would be spending his next few days.
    The nurse had removed his catheter and IV. The only thing he was hooked to was a cuff on his arm and a monitor on his finger. So. Alone.
    Milo had many wretched memories docked in a harbor of too little time. The memories were a festering wound, and the isolation an acid drop on it. Milo didn’t believe misery loved company, but was smart enough to know sharing was a salve on any wound.
    Which made Milo wonder again where in the hell his father was.
    Milo grunted, then swung his legs from bed, detached the device which measured the oxygen in his blood, and then rolled into the bathroom with his IV drip bag.
    He sat on the toilet, body aching, pissing for what felt like forever. At first, it hurt to piss. But then the pain ceded. And then Milo continued to sit there, crying, feeling sad, scared, and alone, missing his mother, maybe more than ever. He was terrified that his father would fall into the same abyss that claimed him when Milo’s mom vanished.
    Milo’s dad was mostly a ghost — an apparition of the man who once curled his fingers into the chain link at every baseball game, held the glue steady so it poured in thin lines, and made sure all Milo’s A’s and B’s were displayed on the fridge with his homemade smiley face magnets.
    Milo lost his father once. The wound, still raw, was bleeding again. He couldn’t bear to do it again.
    Milo flushed the toilet, washed his hands, then opened the bathroom door to find his father standing there.
    “Dad!” Milo said hobbling toward his dad and hugging him.
    “Milo!” he said. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
    Milo sat back on the bed and put the oxygen monitoring clip back on his finger.
    Milo looked up at his father, but before he could say a word, his dad leaned onto the bed. “I’m sorry Milo, I should’ve been here.”
    His dad looked like he was one shudder from sobbing, which sloshed the acid in Milo’s stomach. His father never cried, or at least almost never. He always cried when he watched Field of Dreams and some baseball games, but almost never otherwise.
    “It’s okay, Dad,” Milo said, suddenly meaning it. “I’m glad you’re home, though.” Milo smiled, though it hurt, sending a spark of pain to his abdomen. “How’s Beatrice.”
    Milo’s dad looked down, then shook his head. “Not too great. Doctor says they’ll know more later, but so far the news isn’t good.”
    “Sorry,” Milo said.
    Milo’s dad tried to hold Milo’s gaze as the edges of his mouth started to twitch, appearing more angry than sad.
    “You okay, Dad?”
    Milo’s father smiled, the older smile that made him look more like a ghost.
    “Yeah, I’m fine, considering. It’s just,” his face flooded with apology, “Bea and I have been fighting lately, a lot actually, and that’s part of the reason I’ve been out of the house more often than usual. But that’s not fair to you, or her either. Now she’s … ” He collapsed into tears. “Well, I dunno if she’s gonna make it, and I can’t get our last conversation outta’ my head.”
    “I’m sorry,” Milo said.
    “It’s okay,” his father said, wiping his eyes before pulling Milo’s hands into his. “Everything for a reason. Everything will be okay. This is the wake-up call I needed. Now, tell me what happened.”
    Milo’s dad patted him on his hand, and Milo filled him in on everything (except the Cody guy calling him — he didn’t want his dad to think he was crazy) until the nurse came in with medication which made Milo feel groggy.
    Milo was barely aware of his father getting up to leave the room. He might not had even noticed had his dad not leaned in, kissed him on the head, and said, “I’m sorry this all happened. I love you.”
    His dad left the room, leaving Milo alone, but feeling more loved than he had since his mother turned to