Read A Wealth of Unsaid Words for Free Online

you anymore.”
    “So you keep saying.” Alex"s students wouldn"t know
    what to make of him like this, choking and quiet. Everett
    34

    A Wealth of Unsaid Words • R. Cooper

    half-turned back to him, but wrinkled his forehead and then
    shook his head. He heaved a breath.
    “One day you might even believe it.” He got out of the
    car, leaving Alex to get the paper bag of last minute groceries
    and tchotchke that had caught his eye. He looked inside the
    grocery bag and stopped without opening the door. Everett
    came around and opened it for him.
    “Oh yeah, I grabbed some bags,” Everett explained when
    he saw what Alex was staring at. Of course Alex had seen the
    waxy bags of handmade, old-fashioned, paper-wrapped
    candies hanging up by the cash register, but he hadn"t
    noticed Everett buying any.
    A local woman made them. Alex had never seen them
    for sale anywhere else.
    “I know there will be enough sweets at home for
    Christmas, but I"ll take these back to the city with me and
    keep them for later. I loved these as a kid.”
    “I know.” Alex moved but kept the bag close to him as
    he got out of the car. He was too quiet to be heard. “I"d never
    forget that.”
    Everett"s mouth had been sticky with them when he had
    explained with perfect Everett logic that they ought to learn
    how to kiss and that there would be no one better to practice
    with than each other. A man didn"t forget things like that,
    especially not a man in love.

    35

    A Wealth of Unsaid Words • R. Cooper

    here was a lot of noise in the house when they
    returned. There was always a lot of noise of course,
    T

    this many people in one house made noise, but as
    this was of the screaming, excited-child variety, Alex had left
    the kids to their redecorating of the already decorated tree in
    the living room and attempted to hide in his old room.
    As that option hadn"t been available since his room had
    apparently been given away, he had wandered around
    instead, chatting with uncles and cousins—wishing he still
    smoked and that he didn"t have uneaten donuts in his
    pocket and a wooden duck in his luggage upstairs—and had
    finally come out here.
    The Faraday home was not as large a home as it
    probably should have been, but it had a big yard and plenty
    of thick, tall trees. There"d used to be one rather
    conveniently located tree under Everett"s bedroom window,
    but disease had taken it a few years back. The one in the
    front yard was a similar size, currently frosted over and
    without leaves, with an equally cold and bare bench beneath
    it. He was frozen and shivering, but he hardly noticed. He"d
    thought to bring his gloves at least, so all was not lost.
    The sky had grown dark some time ago, making the
    lights from inside glow brighter. Except for the lack of
    blanketing snow, the house looked like a Christmas card,
    but he didn"t think that with the venom that some might
    have. He could still hear people talking inside, though the
    children must have been sent to bed already, their fun with
    what had once been a beautiful tree over. The adults were
    36

    A Wealth of Unsaid Words • R. Cooper

    having their time now, catching up, hearing stories, fighting
    exhaustion in the name of spending time with loved ones.
    It was stupid for him to still be out here, freezing his ass
    off in full view of the neighbors who had never much liked
    him anyway. Their disapproving stares had never faded, not
    even after Everett"s parents had registered as fosters and
    reported his father for his own good. His father had always
    been back again before too long, momentarily medicated,
    sometimes overmedicated, though everyone, the neighbors
    included, had known it wouldn"t last.
    This house hadn"t had enough room for four children
    and two parents and the always visiting cousins, but the
    Faradays had redone their basement to give Alex a place to
    stay, something he knew had been partly a young Everett"s
    doing. He"d been born a crusader, flaming sword in