As she saw Taylor and Darla coming into the park, Maggie started waving enthusiastically, “There they are!”
Michael, being the polite guy, waved as well. Just as soon as they were done, Maggie’s phone started ringing, “Oh, hold a moment. Hello?”
“Hey, Lenny.”
“Wha-Gabriel!” Michael jumped nearly two feet from Maggie’s shout, “Where are you?! Are you alright?!”
“Yeah,” Gabriel sounded hesitant, “Sorry about that. I’m at Kevin’s, been here for a few days.”
“So, you’ve been at your friends and didn’t even think to call sooner!”
“I’m sorry! After…what happened and the accounting guy found…I just needed some time to blow some steam off…” Gabriel sighs the sigh of a man with a heavy heart, “…and…I didn’t know what to say when I did think to call. Guess I am a coward, like the old man said.”
“Okay, first,” Maggie started, lifting a finger Gabriel could in no way see, “I am glad you finally did call, but even a single notice of ‘Hey, I’m alive’ would have been okay. Second, no matter what that self-righteous bastard said or thought or did, it was never right! You are not a coward!”
“You didn’t run from home, though.”
“You had every right to do so, Gabriel. I just wanted a message saying you were fine though.”
“Sorry.” Gabriel, though clearly still feeling some guilt over not calling sooner, changed the subject, “What’s left of the house?”
“Still plenty of furniture and a bunch of ‘redacted’ bibles in the study left. Your room has also been untouched. We didn’t know what you would want to take, so we left it as is.”
“We?”
“Me and Michael.”
“Michael’s there? Shouldn’t he be at his preppy cult school?”
Michael, who had been listening in, took the phone, “I dropped out as soon as I heard. Or, well, as soon as I digested what I learned. Then I came back home and found a nice apartment just big enough for three people.”
“So?”
“So? Brother, I am saying, that if you want, you can live with us. It might get cramped, but…honestly, without those two a broom closet would be a mansion in feeling.”
“…” Silence rang for a few moments, “I’ll think about it, alright? I’ll…I’ll call more often.”
“That’s fine. We all deal with things differently. Do you…” He looked at Maggie, who shook her head. Gabriel sounded off that he needs to go and ‘help Kevin not brain himself in while tripping drunk’.
With goodbyes said all around, the call ended, just in time as the two sisters were coming up to the Woods siblings…