There's A Place For Us

Chapter 18:Timothy

Hugo led the way to William’s house. I hoped whatever bond they had forged years ago was strong enough to last all these years. Hugo needed all the people and support he could get. He’d need someone to look after him well I was away. In some ways, I regretted giving him hope and for getting him attached to me as much as I loved him, I felt guilty. Something else needed to go right for him other than Seth getting caught and him not being homeless anymore. I knew it seemed like a lot to ask but Hugo couldn’t be alone anymore. He needed people who were on his side and who were willing to fight for him. I hoped William would be one of those people.

He led most of the way but eventually slowed in front of a house. The house was for sale and needed minor repairs, but it was beautiful with a deck and porch swing.

“Hugo?” I questioned quietly looking at the house and back at him.

“This is my old house, I haven’t been here since they packed up my necessities and took me into the foster care system. It’s empty, it’s a shell. It used to be filled with my things, my parents’ things, now all their things are gone, sold, donated, and mine are mainly in the garbage because I couldn’t lug it all around with me,” he mumbles quietly.

He looked at it longingly for several more seconds before taking a breath and continuing on down the street and onto the next. I followed him, I looked back a few times, taking in the house, imaging his mother singing to him on the swing and his father arriving home late, Hugo having fallen asleep on his mother’s lap waiting for him.

William’s house was similar, front deck and all but in better condition. Hugo stood at the bottom of the stairs to the deck just staring at the house for a bit.

“Same car?” I asked pointing to the silver Honda in the driveway.

“No, but that could be William’s, he’s old enough to drive now or they could have gotten a new car,” he reasons.

He turned back towards the front door and took a step up the staircase onto the front porch. He paused before the door again and then knocked on the door. He stepped back nervously bouncing on his heels.

“Calm down,” I whispered smiling.

He smiled back at me.

The door was answered by a woman in her late forties or early fifties. Her hair was graying around the ears and her hazel eyes reminded me of honey or amber. She looked confused for a few seconds before recognizing Hugo.

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “Hugo, is that you? We haven’t heard from you in years!”

“Hello, Mrs. Halligan,” he replied smiling fondly.

“What happened to you? You haven’t called since you moved out of that first foster house and your social worker never could keep us up to date with where you were. William went looking for you a few times but you were always gone. Then they said you just disappeared one night. He called for months trying to get updates and information and he got nothing,” she rambles on worried.

“A lot has happened,” Hugo replies quietly and uneasily.

“Come in, who’s your friend?” she replies gesturing inside well inquiring about me.

“Timothy Winter,” I introduce myself.

“He’s… a friend. I’m staying with him till the foster system sorts some things out,” Hugo explains.

“What school have you been going to? Do you have college plans?” Mrs. Halligan went on and on.

I don’t think William had told her there was an actual missing person’s report put out for Hugo just that he was missing or maybe that he couldn’t find him. Either way, she still thought Hugo was in school. That he still had plans to continue his education afterward.

“It’s kind of up in the air right now. I don’t know where the foster system is sending me next. There’s a family out of state that wanted to adopt but the system wants to keep me here so they’re looking into other options,” Hugo continues.

I never noticed how used he was to evading questions. I guess he’d been mainly honest with me.

“Is William here?” Hugo asks finally.

Mrs. Halligan looks at her watch.

“He should be back soon. Where is this family who wants to adopt you? Why do they want to keep you here?” she continues her questions.

“In New Hampshire, Hampton. It’s a small town but they have a boat. I’ve seen pictures, I want to go but the system is complicating things. I figured if I’m going to stay here, I need friends, Timothy won’t be around forever and I wanted to see William,” he continues with a little more honesty.

“Where are you going?” she asked me.

“Back to New Hampshire, I’m from there. My mom’s friend is the one who offered to adopt him,” I explain.

“I don’t understand why they’re keeping you, it sounds perfect,” she replies.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Hugo reasons quietly.

It was, and it wasn’t.

The front door screeched open.

“Mom?” someone called.

A dark-haired boy with green eyes appeared in the doorway.

“William, look who came to visit,” Mrs. Halligan exclaims in Hugo’s direction.

The recognition is more instant in William than in his mother.

“Hugo?” he questions.

“Hey, Will,” Hugo replies.

William drops the grocery bags he was carrying and stumbles over them to get to Hugo. He hugs Hugo and Hugo embraces it.

“I finally got taller than you,” William comments standing next to Hugo.

Hugo smiles sadly.

“What happened to you?” William asks. “Who’s your friend?”

“A lot, a lot happened. This is Timothy. Can we go somewhere, you know?” he explains quickly and quietly.

“Sure, just give me a minute,” he exclaims quickly.

He steps back and picks up the bags and takes them over to the kitchen counter.

“Come on,” he replies walking back towards the staircase.

I hesitate momentarily, unsure if I should follow but Hugo looks back at me and I take it as a sign that he wants me to. We climb the stairs to William’s room. The walls are mainly white and plain aside from family photos. A man is ever-present next to William and his mother, his father, I assume, who has the same green eyes as William.

We make it inside his room which reminds me of mine when I was a teenager and lived at home. An X-box, PlayStation, posters from bands and TV shows, a bit of a mess but it must look drastically different from what it did five years ago because Hugo takes all of it in like he’s seeing it for the first time.

“Is Tim your boyfriend?” William asked.

I watched Hugo prickle at that question. I didn’t know if it was the boyfriend part or the short use of my name that set him off.

“Yes,” Hugo replies curtly gauging my reaction to the question as well.

“Man, you still won that one,” he comments.

Hugo seems to remember where this is coming from and seems less worried about the question than he did before.

“You haven’t had one, yet?” he asks.

“Nah, the girls don’t like geeks,” he comments.

“You’re still in the geek category?” Hugo questions.

“The eyes don’t draw them in that much I guess,” he replies. “Why did you disappear from the Hunt house? Did he hurt you, too? I’ve seen the stories from the local university. Are they true?”

Hugo freezes at the question. He sinks onto William’s bed. He rubs his palms together nervously.

“They’re true and he did,” Hugo replies.

He didn’t have to say it this time. William looked away briefly, he wiped his eyes before hugging Hugo.

“I’m sorry,” William replies.

“It’s not your fault. He’s going to jail now. He can’t get away with it with the victims that have come forward,” Hugo reasons.

Hugo tried to ease William off a bit. I think he felt trapped by William’s hug. I didn’t exactly tightly hug him when I put my arms around him either and William didn’t know the lasting effects of what Seth had done.

“Where are you staying?” William continues.

“The foster care system is looking for a place for me. I was homeless until a few weeks ago when I met Timothy,” Hugo explains.

“You lived on the street for two whole years? How did you not freeze to death?” William exclaims.

“I had my ways,” Hugo murmurs. “I’m going to use the bathroom.”

Hugo gets up and makes his way past me to the bathroom in the hall. William looks over me.

“How did you meet?” he asks.

“He was sitting at the train station begging for change, I bought him food and offered him a place to stay for the night. He helped me realize I don’t want to go to university. It’s just not for me,” I reply.

“Thank you for looking after him and loving him when I couldn’t find him,” William replies quietly.

“I’ll thank you for doing the same when I leave,” I reply.

“You’re leaving? You like him though,” William states.

“My family’s in New Hampshire. I’ll come visit, it’s only a few hours. I do like him and I want him to come but it’s the system’s choice,” I answer. “Sam’s fighting for him and I got him to report Seth to the police. I’ve helped as much as I can. It’s not like he has to stay here forever. The system will kick him out if he doesn’t have a permanent home at eighteen, and he can either stay with you here or come live with me, wherever I am in two years,” I explain. “He wants to be a soldier so we might not see much of him either way.”

“A soldier? The last time we talked he still wanted to be a doctor,” William replies.

“He wants to save people, kids, he wants to protect them. I offered to get him a job in Hampton if he came so he could save for college or university but he said he still wanted to be a soldier,” I explain. “He also kind of felt it was one of the only options with the situation he was in. It was something he could look forward to, that would make his parents proud.”

“His parents would be proud of him no matter what. He doesn’t need to go off to another country to do it. He survived something horrible. War will only destroy him more,” William continues.

“You want to talk him out of it? Try. But he’s a drifter, it’s how he’s learned to live. He floats between places, we already know this. You already lost him once, do you really want to lose him again, over this? I almost lost him over not quitting school, don’t mistake that for me quitting for him either. I stopped because I hated it. Hugo had more going for him than me wanting to go to that university. I don’t want to lose him, but I can’t just stay here feeding off my parents’ money either, so I’m going back, I’m going to find a job and if he wants to, he can join me. He’s had so much decided for him all his life, where he would live, with who, he didn’t get to consent to his first time. He should get to choose what comes next. His life, his career, I’m not going to take if you want to try and hold him here, you can, but I’m not sure he’ll like it or see it the way you or I do,” I continue.

“But we’re saving his life,” he reasons. “From more pain.”

“I convinced him to go to the police about Seth. He’s getting justice. I’m not saying I’m completely responsible for everything, he made the choice to go and he should make the choice about anything moving that he can. It’s bad enough the foster system won’t let him get adopted. Adopted. Not fostered. He’ll have a place he can call home for the first time in over half a decade,” I go on.

“But you’re still going to let him go off to war,” he exclaims.

“Not lightly,” I reason. “I love him.”

“He’s my best friend,” William counters.

“Just remember it’s not our choice,” I finish.

I hear the bathroom door open down the hall and we both go silent.

Hugo comes back looking calmed and excited again.

“Do you really want to be a soldier?” William asks him.

Hugo looks at me.

“Yes,” he answers.

“Why?” he asks Hugo directly.

“I want to stop people from dying, I want them to get second chances,” Hugo answers.

“You could do that by being a doctor here, or a police officer or a firefighter. You don’t need to leave the country to do it,” William reasons.

“I’m behind in my education. It takes years to become a doctor and I want to save people that normally fall through the cracks, like I did,” he continues.

William looks to me for help. When someone makes up their mind, it’s hard to change it. We had to hope and pray he came back to us and that he was the same person when he did.