68 – This Gift, This Curse

 

 

"He started drinking," Mira said, answering Kevin's question. "I found out that much. Not where he was doing it, but that he was. Beat cops would see him, occasionally. But they never followed up on it. After all, he wasn't their concern since he wasn't a police officer any more. Or I guess that's how they looked at it. By the time I found out what he was doing, he had totally vanished."

 

Kevin tilted his head at this new revelation from his mother. "Will's really a cop? I mean, that's what he said, when he told me about his plan for keeping me safe. But then he also said Mick was in the police academy."

 

Mira chuckled. "That was a bit of a stretch."

 

"Hey now, I could be, if I was older." Mick chuckled. "And if I wanted to be a cop… and if I get my GED… and…" His shook his head. "Way off topic."

 

"A bit," Mira replied with a smile. "But nonetheless." She returned her attention to Kevin. "Yes, your father was a cop—and a damned good one."

 

"Like you."

 

She patted his hand. "Thank you for that. I wish I was half as good as he was."

 

"Could he be one again, if he wanted to?"

 

"I bet he could," Mick said. "There was this officer, the one who talked to you when you were in the hospital, Kev. He said, umm, something like it was an honor to meet him. And that was just recently and…"

 

"First off, Will would have to want to return to it," Mira pointed out. "And I'm not sure he does."

 

"Me neither," Mick admitted.

 

Kevin sighed. "This is… sad. He's my father and even Mick knows more about him than I do."

 

Mira smiled at Kevin. "You'll learn, once you get to know the real him."

 

"If he lets me," Kevin replied, his mouth tightening. "I mean, he never told me, in all the time since I met him."

 

"I'd say he was afraid, Kev. He's spent the last eighteen years living a life he's certain you wouldn't approve of. And that was after he vanished from my life. He probably sees himself as someone far from the image you've drawn of what your father would have been like."

 

"Yeah, well, he's wrong. I mean… okay, so I didn't have a picture of a street person"—he glanced at Mick, who gave him a thumbs-up—"but the man I've come to know is… is just the way I imagined my father might have been as a person, if that makes sense."

 

"It does," Mira told him quietly.

 

"So he shouldn't be afraid of my knowing he's my father. Because I do now, and I want him in my life."

 

"That, Kevin, you're going to have to tell him, and convince him you mean it."