Shaun Blankenship

Autumn Pollock

Romeo was a small town in the heart of New York. Some of the roads weren't paved, but the streets always seemed to look new and fresh. The town had an antique quality to it; the buildings on Main Street have all been standing since the early nineteen hundreds and were occupied by small family-owned business that had been there for years. Even though the gas stations and supermarkets added a touch of modernism, the town looked like a picture out of an old and dusty scrapbook.

The Appletons lived in a modest house off of Main Street. The lawn was mowed, the curtains in the windows blew around with the light wind, and a small white picket fence surrounded the yard, not for protection, but rather to make sure their little Beagle pup didn't stray far from the home.

Young Jonathan crouched in the grass, rubbing the dog's head gently. Mrs. Appleton was talking to her husband who stood at the grill flipping hamburgers; "Our little boy's eleven today!"

Mr. Appleton looked back at his lovely wife. "Adopting him all those years ago was the best thing we ever did."

"After that infection…" Mrs. Appleton trailed off and touched her stomach before continuing. "It was an act of God, Daniel, that I saw this. I would have died of despair."

Mr. Appleton hugged his wife before turning back to the grill. "Dinner'll be done in fifteen minutes or so. You might want to make sure the tables set and what not."

At that time, they both heard a car pulling up in the driveway. "I'll go see who it is," Mrs. Appleton said smiling as she walked to the front yard.

An old, banged-up red Jetta had just parked along side of the Appleton's front sidewalk. A tall, dark man stepped out of the driver-side door as a small, young girl came out of the passenger side. The man gripped the girl's hand and firmly pulled her along.

Mrs. Appleton asked, "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for the Appletons."

"We're looking for the brother," the girl chipped in brightly.

The man tugged at her arm and scolded, "Hush, Sheteria. That's enough of you!"

The little girl looked momentarily disheartened before staring in wonder at the puppy that ran up to the fence. Mrs. Appleton's face drained of all color. "Excuse me?" she asked, praying that she heard wrong.

The man then extended a hand in a somewhat surreal friendly gesture. "Hi, My name is Bernard Adams. You adopted my son six years ago. We lost him in a 'Toys R Us' in Brooklyn and have been searching for him since. The Administration for Children's services said we'd find him here."

Mrs. Appleton's eyes gaped open and her jaw dropped. She ran towards her backyard yelling, "Daniel!" She threw her arms around her husband, shocking him in dropping his spatula on the grill. She started crying on his shoulder, "They want to take our Jonathan away! They want to take him away! Don't let them!"

Daniel turned around slowly as not to disturb his wife's grip and saw Bernard and Sheteria walking towards Jonathan. Bernard bent down to eye level with his estranged son and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hi, Johnny. Remember me? I'm your dad."

Jonathan stared at him in disbelief and blinked to make sure what he saw was real. He then poked his father on the nose. "I remember you. Where have you been?"

The father scratched his head and looked at his son. "Well, after we lost you, we couldn't figure out what to do. We did everything we could…"

Daniel stood back as the man tried conning his son into feeling sympathy and thought to himself, Did you try reading a newspaper?

Bernard continued his explanation; "We didn't want to go to the authorities because I had a warrant for my arrest. Do you know what a warrant is?"

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, that's those papers police have to get to arrest people."

Bernard shrugged. "Something like that. We had to go back to North Carolina from our vacation. We didn't want to leave you here but we didn't want to leave you fatherless. Your mother and me knew that soon someone would find you and you'd be taken care of. As soon as I had my name cleared of the charges against me, we were going to come back up here and get you." The man than bowed his head to hide some brief tears. "Two years ago, your mother died in a car accident. We were going to come get you the next morning; we had it all planned out. On her way home from work, a drunk driver smashed into the side of her car and pushed her down a hill into a lake. She drowned trying to escape. We didn't want to bring you down right then because you were younger and we were coping still. The first thing we wanted to do with you together when we were reunited was not to go to your mother's funeral. But, hey, you're eleven now. You're growing up and you deserve to know."

Jonathan started to tear up but a cry never escaped his mouth. He threw his arms around his father to hug him and he returned it himself. Bernard patted his son on the back to comfort him. "It's okay, Jon. I'm here now. I'm here to take you home now."

Jon pulled away with tears still falling down his face. "But I am home, daddy."

Bernard looked up at the Appletons and sneered. "This was your home. This was your foster home. A foster home is where they put kids until they're real parents come to claim them. I'm here, Jonathan, and I'm going to take you to your real home."

Jonathan stood up and backed away from the man. "I don't want to leave, daddy. I'm happy here. I have friends here. I have Oliver."

The boy pointed at the Beagle pup, which was at the moment being scratched on the head by Sheteria. The man smacked the little girl's hand away from dog and scolded, "Don't touch that, you don't know where it's been!"

Daniel finally broke away from his wife's grip and spoke out, "No, you can't take him."

Bernard stood up from the crouch he had previously assumed. "What do you mean I 'can't take him'. He's my son. You can't keep him."

Mrs. Appleton walked up to her husband and assumed the position she had been holding before he moved away. "You can't just waltz in here and expect to take your son away after you had abandoned him! He's ours now and we have the paperwork."

Bernard's eyes grew wide and he walked towards Daniel. "You have paperwork? I have birth certificates. I have baby photos. Your paperwork is nothing. I'm the boy's father; you're just a babysitter. Now I'm going to take my son home. Any questions."

"You're not going anywhere with him. Now get out of here before I call the police."

The man chuckled briefly and sarcastically. "You call the police on me? I should call them on you for kidnapping."

Daniel held his chin up to not touch the man who kept getting closer with every word he said. "Get out of her now. Get out of here and don't come back unless you have a cop with you. Get out of here now."

Bernard lifted an eyebrow in disbelief and backed off. "Okay, I see how this is. Fine, I'll leave. But I'll be back and I'm going to have my son back. Don't stand in my way." He turned and crouched back down to reach eye level with his son. "I want you to go pack. I'll be back so you just be ready!" He stood back up and yanked Sheteria away from the dog and back to the car.

***

The families appeared in the courts two weeks later. The Appletons had sat with Jonathan; as Bernard Adams had sat with his daughter, Sheteria, and his eighteen year-old son, Brendan. The judge adjusted her glasses and looked down on Bernard and queried, "You mean to say that you've been arrested three times in the last five years, you've had three accounts of drunk driving this year alone when it's only October, and your young daughter was removed from your custody for two months last year because of 'unsanitary living conditions'?"

Bernard bowed his head and admitted, "Yes, but I'm a new man now."

The judge looked at the Appletons and smiled. "This is open and shut. The Appletons are to remain the guardians of young Jonathan. Mr. Adams, you will be expected to pay child support… as soon as you find a job… and are restricted from visiting Jonathan without the Appleton's permission and police supervision. Case closed." The judge pounded her gavel on the surface of her desk. "Court is adjourned."

The Appletons ran out to the hallway outside of the courtroom. Mrs. Appleton jumped and hugged on to her husband. Daniel made sure that he didn't fall over when she leaped in his arms. Jonathan walked out shortly after they exited. After Daniel put his wife back down, the Adams family came out the doors into the hallway. Bernard looked and Daniel crossly and turned his head towards a window to talk to him; "You won this one, but there will be other trials. I'll have him eventually."

Daniel retaliated, "Get your life together. Fix your self up. Until you do that, don't dare try to take him back and waste our time. If you want him, you better make sure that you can have him. Become a better parent, and don't ever give up when you can't find your own son." Daniel threw his arm around his bride and walked away from Bernard stunned figure. "Come on, Jonathan. Let's go home."