Page 50 of Frog

I looked at her. “Only for a couple weeks.”

She nodded. “Are you certain?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Well, because Micah likes you,” she told me. “He feels safe, like you won’t get hurt or leave him.”

“How would you know that?”

“Well—” She smiled at me, sitting down on the porch railing. “—when I asked him to draw something that represented you, he drew a mountain.”

“Because I’m bigger than him.” I smiled.

“I don’t think so.”

“Mountain, huh? Okay.”

“You don’t seem pleased.”

I shrugged. “It’s fine.”

“What’s wrong with being a mountain?”

“It’s so boring.” I chuckled. “I couldn’t be a mustang or a cheetah?”

She laughed softly. “A mountain is very good thing, Mr. Yates. It’s—”

“Weber.”

Her eyes flicked to my face.

“Pardon me, ma’am, but if you would please call me by my given name, I would be much obliged.”

She nodded. “Obliged. I haven’t heard that word in years.”

“I suspect not.” I sighed.

“Well,” she said and took a breath, “Weber, I will tell you that a mountain is precisely what Micah needs right now. His grandmother died in front of him, the nanny just ran away from home, and, to him, in his mind, she took his father with her. He feels abandoned by both of them. Change is not good for him. He needs a foundation.”

“He has his mother.”

“Who is frantically trying to build a quick new life for her and her children and does not have time to sit and hug him… she just doesn’t.”

“But he’s a big boy.”

“He’s six.” She nodded. “Six is not big. Six needs to be loved on very hard.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Well, he has a helluva mother.”

“Agreed, but like I said, she’s doing the best she can to first navigate her own loss and then that of her children. She’s a single parent to three boys who each require her full attention. It is a daunting task that greets her daily.”

I nodded.

“I commend her, but she needs help. Children who don’t get what they need at home—love, rules, responsibility—look elsewhere for it. Kids are in crisis right now, Weber. All of them, not just these; we’re talking thousands without enough support. Two parents are vital, and then, only a start.”