Chapter 6 - Cedar Hollow Park
Marcus stayed for cake. He told the kids he wasn't there to arrest anybody, and at least one of them looked genuinely let down.
Walter sat at the far edge of the patio with a paper plate on his knee. Nobody went near him for a while. Then Cody dropped into the chair next to him.
"Do you have kids?"
Walter looked at his cake. "A daughter."
"Is she old?"
"She's thirty-two."
Cody thought about that. "That's really old."
Diana coughed into her hand.
Walter almost smiled. "I suppose it is."
"Does she like chocolate cake?"
"She used to."
Cody handed him the plastic fork he'd forgotten to take. "Maybe she still does. People mostly keep liking cake."
Walter looked at him for a long time. "Maybe."
The next Saturday, Walter asked me to drive him to Cedar Hollow Park. He said his car was making a noise. I was fairly sure the real problem was that he didn't trust himself to go alone.
Nora was waiting near the playground with a boy in a red jacket. The second Walter saw them, he stopped walking.
Owen was running a toy train along the back of a bench, making the engine sounds under his breath.
Nora stood up when she saw us. She had Walter's eyes, but everything else about her face was warmer than his.
I offered to wait in the car.
Walter grabbed my arm. "Stay until she says hello. Please."
So I stayed.
Nora looked at me. "You're Aaron?"
I nodded.
"Dad told me what happened. All of it."
Walter looked at the grass.
"He left out the part where he was about to burn your letters in a barrel," I said.
Nora gave him a long, tired look. "Yeah. That tracks."
Walter swallowed. "I'm sorry, Nora."
She held up one hand. "Not yet."
He nodded and closed his mouth.
Nora crouched next to the boy. "Owen. This is your grandfather."
Owen studied him. "Do you like trains?"
Walter looked at the little engine in the boy's hand. "I don't know much about them, honestly."
"I can teach you. It's easy. You just have to learn the tracks."
May you like
Something moved across Walter's face. It wasn't forgiveness — nobody had offered him that. It was the look of a man realizing he'd just been handed a beginning he knew he hadn't earned and wanted more than anything.
"I'd like that," he said.
