The Boy by Betty Jane Hegerat Read Free Book Online

Funny at first, but finally Jake asked him to cut it, and to make sure he wrote a thank you note on Boxing Day. Another family tradition courtesy of Brenda, all presents were acknowledged with handwritten notes on Boxing Day.
    And is she, Louise can’t help wondering, expected to keep up all the traditions? Is that the stepmother’s job? It would be different if Jake was divorced, and there was a real mother across town, upholding tradition. Louise, awake early this morning with an unsettled stomach, stood at the window waiting for dawn, and thought she could see Brenda’s footsteps in the deep snow around the house.
    Louise’s dad is in good spirits when they arrive. As Louise could have predicted, he likes Jake, and he and Danny have discovered a mutual love of hockey. The boy, he told Louise a few days ago, will be fine. Nothing there that a little kindness can’t cure. Danny’s gift to his new step-grandfather is a hockey puck emblazoned with the Oilers logo. Danny, to his credit, convincingly fakes some enthusiasm for the gift-wrapped collection of old Tom Swift books.
    â€œReally, Dad,” Louise says, when Dan has gone into the kitchen to help Jake unload the food. “You couldn’t get me interested in those dated old stories. What makes you think a kid in the electronic age will find them remotely interesting?”
    He looks hurt. Louise knows that if her mother were here, she would stand beside him, and gently chide Louise. A gift is a gift, she would say. And the look on her face would say, I thought we taught you this.
    â€œDo you think he’d rather have cash?”
    Yes, she’s positive of that, but she shakes her head. “I’m sorry. It was a generous gesture.” Maybe she can explain to Danny how much her dad loved those books and how he kept them for his own children, but ungrateful little girl that she was, she didn’t appreciate them. A boy, she will tell him, would probably not have disappointed him. “Much better than cash. What are you going to do with your hockey puck?”
    He picks the puck up from the coffee table and tosses it in the air, catches it with a grin. “I’m enjoying that a young fellow thought an old guy like me would like this. And I thought he seemed pretty pleased with the books. He’s a good boy at heart, Louise.”
    She’s told her dad briefly of Danny’s problems at school, his lack of friends. Nothing about the shoplifting. Theft and lying were two things her parents would never abide. They would be sympathetic to a child with problems, but if the law were ever involved there would serious questions about character and responsibility, the good-heartedness notwithstanding.
    Louise has told her mother, as clearly and gently as possible, about her marriage, about this boy who will be her stepson, but there is no way of knowing if she understood. Jake has visited at the nursing home with her a half dozen times, but they agreed after the one time Danny came along, that there was no point in taking him again. Louise’s mom is beyond having a relationship with her new grandson. The place stunk, Danny said as soon as they entered the building and he thought it was hilarious that a bingo game was going on in the lounge. Bingo for zombies. When they found Louise’s mom in the rows of wheelchairs and pushed her down to the lounge so they could have privacy for the visit, Danny sat silently through the laboured conversation, staring at his feet.
    Louise looks around this room with the tiny artificial tree twinkling on the piano next to her mom and dad’s wedding picture. There is scant resemblance between the radiant young woman in the photo and the mother she visits at the nursing home. She sits down and runs her fingers over the furry keys. Her dad has given the cleaning woman two weeks off with pay for Christmas, but Louise doubts the living room has been dusted since