Love You Forever (2013 Wattys Finalist)

Chapter 4 - Sad Miracles

Robert responded right away to the text from Joey telling him he had a job, and let him know he could start working as soon as the next day. He and his mum ate breakfast while she chatted, sticking to safe topics like the weather and recent news about their neighbors. When they finished, he cleaned up the dishes for her while she drank her tea.

As soon as he was done, he said, “I’ll head upstairs now, mum.” She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes filled with concern, and he realized what she was afraid of.

“I’m going to shave, yeah? Get cleaned up a bit?”

“Oh. Alright, Robbie,” she said with obvious relief, making the guilt burn through him yet again. He gave her kiss before he went upstairs.

When he stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, he examined his beard. His mum was right to think it made him look like there was something seriously wrong with him. It was the most facial hair he’d ever had before, and he didn’t like it. He looked awful, like he was mental.

A lot of his mates sported facial hair to some degree nearly all the time since they couldn’t be bothered shaving regularly, but he never had. He’d always shaved every day, even if he didn’t plan to go out. Maybe because his curly hair was always so crazy looking, going all over in a mass of waves, he’d felt the need to be clean shaven. And besides, it was hard enough to get girls to notice him as it was, he didn’t need to go about looking like a mad homeless person.

He took his time removing the beard, hacking away at it bit by bit. While he worked, he happened to see the shower enclosure behind him in the mirror and suddenly heard her voice in his head, exclaiming, “Robert! A shower!” and then her desperate pleading, “I want to take a shower! Can I take one right now?”

---Then---

Robert looked at Georgie as she knelt at his mum’s feet still hugging the pale blue rucksack to her chest. She looked lost as she gazed at him, her sad eyes full of uncertainty, like she still wasn’t sure what was going on. Maybe it was the shock of her being in his home and meeting his parents, he thought. After all, she’d had no idea it was a possibility he could take her with him. He needed to get her alone so he could talk to her. And perhaps if he fixed her hair and got her into some different clothes, his parents would stop looking at her like she was someone they needed to be worried about.

“Georgie, let’s go upstairs and get cleaned up, yeah?” he said gently.

“Okay, Robert,” she said in a small voice.

He looked at his dad. “You won’t tell Mary and Betsy anything when you call them, yeah? When they get here, I’ll talk to them,” he reaffirmed.

“Alright, Robbie,” his dad said, but Robert could tell he wasn’t happy about it.

Before he got up, he gave his mum a kiss on the cheek and hugged her, saying gently, “I’ll be right back mum.”

“Alright, Robbie,” she said, patting his cheek gently, blinking back tears as she looked at him like she was drinking him in again.

He gave her another kiss before he stood up and took Georgie by the hand, leading her upstairs. When they were in his room, he took the rucksack from her and threw it on his bed. Then he put his hands on her cheeks and looked in her sad eyes. She looked just as she had downstairs, completely lost.

“Are you alright?” he asked gently.

“I’m not sure. Is this a dream?” she asked in a small voice, her eyes filling up with tears. “I’m afraid, Robert. I don’t want to wake up. I don’t want to be back –.” She couldn’t finish as the tears rolled down her cheeks. He put his arms around her and hugged her, stroking her hair while she cried quietly into his shoulder.