"Are you leaving, then?"
Zach closes his eyes and takes a steadying breath before turning to face his mother. She is not looking at him but at the table, where a bus ticket lay, and a small velvet box rests open, its treasure catching the first light of the early morning.
She picks up the ring with a look Zach can't identify: Contemplation with a hint of something unfamiliar to him.
Quietly, she begins, "I want you to know that I've never seen you as happy as when you came home that day." He knows of what day she's speaking. "You looked heartbroken, but more than that, you had such confidence in your eyes. Just like now. I'd never seen such life in you. I didn't understand it one bit."
Returning the ring to its cushioned cradle, she continues, "I just wanted you to know that."
Zach waits.
"I can't watch you go and leave behind the life that I believe will ultimately bring you the most happiness. But, in a way...no," she starts over, finally looking him in the eye. "As your mother, I'm very proud of you."
She takes a breath and grabs a nearby chair to prepare herself for her next words.
"For your sake...don't tell me where it is you're going." A sob catches in her throat before she continues. "But...please don't stay away for good. Come home once in a while. I'll speak to your father. It won't happen again how it did before. Do you have any idea how much I regret that?" She covers her face from her son, seeming so small standing beside him. "Why I let him do such things to you...I don't--"
"Mom."
He hugs her as the quiet sobs come. Now much taller than his mother, his bare feet seem to absorb every memory of this house, good and bad, up through the floor. He recalls the farmhouse. "It's okay. I'm okay now. And yes, I'll come back. Of course I'll come back. I won't abandon you."
Zach steps away and takes his mother's hands in his. Quietly, not wanting to wake another soul in the house, "I still can't face him. I don't know that I'll ever be able to talk to him--really talk to him. He's not ready to listen. But I'm ready. I know what I want now. And while I understand why he wants what he wants for me, I just...don't want the same.
"He thinks he changed me during the last four years when really, I was just pretending to be someone I'm not. I was deceiving him."
They embrace once more before she retreats back to her sleeping husband.
Zach picks up the bus ticket and his old leather suitcase resting against the table's legs. He places the handwritten note addressed to his father on the table.
After one last look at where his mother stood and at the house he grew up in, he quietly leaves it all behind.
________________
"Let me off up here, please. At that bridge just up ahead."
The bus brakes squeal as the driver slows the vehicle and brings it to a stop. Zach takes a step down toward its door.
"I remember you."
He turns to look at the man, who nods, pointing a finger at him.
"Yeah. You're that boy who rode this bus with your family so many years in a row. I remember. Escaped one day. Your mama was all up in the air worried for ya."
"Yeah." Zach smiles.
"What business would one have in a town like that, can I ask?" He nods past him out the door.
Zach follows his gaze before turning once more to the driver.
"I left something important last time I visited. I'm just coming to see if it's still here."
The man clears his throat and offers a nod, tipping his hat to the young man at the response.
Zach steps heavily onto the road between the gravel and the lush green grass. With a deep breath, he brings his eyes up to see the bridge that has for so many years eluded his memories.