Attention | Farkle Minkus

24

Thomas González didn't know what he was searching for looking for his mom's old best friend. There had to be a reason they weren't friends anymore before his mother's death but yet he blindly went searching for not knowing what he was looking for or why.

Going there proved he did have questions and she managed to answer them whether he wanted those answers or not was up to him, he left with more questions with a deep desire to flee America the reasons why he didn't was because he wanted to solve this mystery and he didn't want to abandon his friends and whatever Farkle was. Not to mention he had no money.

The inheritance he would receive from his mother wouldn't take play until his eighteenth birthday. At least three years until then and from what he heard he wasn't sure he wanted it but he knew that when it was time his curiosity and love for his mother would once again win.

He looked up to his mother before she even died, his guardian angel who knew him better than anyone and still looked at him with a kind smile, who completely loved his father he used to think it was because they were both deceived but now he wasn't sure.

Dolores Martin, the first time he heard her name he thought all his problems would be solved, that when his mother was alive she was happy because she had a friend who looked like she was always happy but maybe her name should have been the first sign.

In the photo, they both looked like they've been happy for years but that's the thing with photos. You couldn't trust them, one single moment doesn't tell you everything rather it tells you what you want to believe.

Thomas didn't know what he wanted to believe. All he knew now was that he couldn't get up from Milo's bed, that he couldn't hear the noise that he knew his younger siblings were making, the ones who didn't have school yet or the ones who were sick.

_________

Dolores Dunne sent the kids in her living room a nervous smile after she returned for the second time, a slightly messy and dirty scrapbook in hand.

She noticed the two boys were closer this time, Thomas no longer wearing his jacket, his left wrist completely red and pink, avoiding all contact with either of them.

Ms Dunne not knowing what to do sat in the same couch they were both sat in keeping space between her and Thomas, tenderly holding the scrapbook on her lap.

Thomas scooted closer trying as hard as he can to get rid of his nerves because that's it, he was finally here and she was right there and he had no idea what he was waiting for. He kept some space between them because like August said 'Stranger danger' just because she knew his mom and possibly his dad didn't make her any less of a stranger.

"The last time I saw your mom, I was twenty three in college, about sixteen or fifteen years ago. She said that I should keep this, that we did this together but I did most of the hard work. That we only had this copy." Ms Dunne opened it to the first page which had some childish scribbling, "we started this when we were eight but we never finished it or did anything really. We continued it when we were fifteen."

________

One of the last conversations he had with his mother was about a scrapbook and Edelweiss, Thomas told her he wanted one when he was older so he could never forget how amazing he was and his  friends, and in the future he'd add how different it was so he told his mom she had to start taking pictures so they never forgot.

That of course never ending up happening, his mother taking her last breath and Thomas being left with his father. His classmates and friends soon forgot him, no longer being the hyperactive shy kid just quiet and alone.