Read These Things Hidden for Free Online

us.”
    “And when you held me in your arms for the first time you cried and cried.” Joshua giggles.
    “I did,” Claire concurs. “I cried like a baby. You were the most beautiful little boy and—” At the same time they hear the bookstore door open and Jonathan enters, his work jeans and T-shirt streaked and dusty from his current renovation.
    “Hey, guys,” he calls, shaking the rain from his black curls. “What’re you doing?”
    “Gotcha Day,” Claire says, by way of explanation.
    “Ahh,” Jonathan says, a big grin spreading across his face. “The best day ever.”
    “Mom cried,” Joshua says, hiding his mouth from Claire, as if not seeing his lips meant she couldn’t hear him.
    “I know,” Jonathan whispers back. “I was there.”
    “Hey, Dad cried, too,” Claire protests, looking at her boys with affection. “We took you home and after thirty days the judge said, ‘Joshua is now officially a Kelby.’”
    “Who was I before?” Joshua asks a bit worriedly.
    “You were a badger with three tails,” Jonathan teases.
    “You were a wish that we made every morning when we woke up and a prayer we said before we went to bed each night,” Claire tells him, swallowing back tears the way she always did when she thought about how things could have been very different, if Dana, the social worker, had dialed a phone number that wasn’t theirs.
    “You were a Kelby the first day we saw you,” Jonathan says, sitting down on the couch so that Joshua was squeezed between his parents.
    “A Kelby sandwich,” Joshua declares, taking up his favorite game. “I’m the peanut butter. You’re the bread.”
    “You’re the liverwurst,” Jonathan corrects him. “The olive loaf, the fried egg with limburger cheese.”
    “No.” Joshua laughs. “You’re a turkey and dressing sandwich.”
    “Hey, I like turkey and dressing sandwiches,” Jonathan protests.
    “Blech.” Joshua sticks out his tongue.
    “Blech,” Claire agrees while Jonathan looks at her over Joshua’s head and their eyes lock. They both know what it’s taken to finally get to this point. The infertility, the wrenching loss of their first foster child. The
    heartache and the disappointment they have endured.
The past is firmly in the past, where it belongs,
their gazes say.
We have our little boy and that’s all that matters.

Charm
    C harm Tullia pushes open the door to Bookends, her textbook list in one hand, her cell phone in the other, in case Gus calls. She wants her stepfather to be able to reach her at anytime. She knows the time will come when she will receive the call that informs her that Gus has fallen, has a fever or worse. The rain has stopped, but she carefully wipes her wet feet on the rug inside the entrance of the bookstore.
    Claire greets her warmly, as she has ever since the first time Charm came into Bookends several years ago. Claire always asks how her nursing classes are going and how her stepfather is doing.
    “He’s not doing very well,” Charm tells her. “The home care nurse says we might want to think about getting hospice involved soon.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Claire says with genuine sadness in her voice. Charm lowers her head and begins rummaging through her purse, hiding her eyes that filled with tears at the thought of Gus dying. This is what makes it so hard and so easy for Charm to keep returning to Bookends. Claire Kelby is just so
nice.
    “Is Joshua here today?” Charm asks, looking around for the little boy.
    “You just missed him,” Claire says apologetically. “Jonathan picked him up and took him home.”
    “Well, tell him hi for me,” Charm says, trying to mask her disappointment, and slides her textbook list across the countertop toward Claire. “I was able to buy most of my books used through the campus store, except for this one, and it is so expensive,” Charm explains, pointing to a title written on the paper. “Do you have any ideas?”
    “I’ll do some checking around,”