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It was hard not to notice how much closer Ron and Terry were since the Incident.
First it was the group hug they had at the doorstep.
Terry and Ron willingly had their arms around each other. Getting them within a close enough proximity to do so was a feat in itself before they left for that soccer trip. If Samantha wasn’t already bawling over them coming back safe, then that alone would’ve started it.
But then something even crazier happened, at the grocery store no less.
“Terry Jr,” Ron said. “Could you reach that for me?”
“Sure thing, dad,”
Dad .
Terry smiled at her, seeing her stunned face, like he called him that just to reassure her that they were doing alright.
That one stung in a special way. Dad had always been Big Terry.
Which isn’t to say she was truly upset about this; them suddenly getting along was a dream come true of course!
But it made her feel off.
Terry easily grabbed the box of gravy mix Ron had been reaching for. Samantha could’ve sworn he’d grown at least three inches during his time missing.
She still wasn’t exactly sure what happened over that day and a half.
The other parents each told different stories.
Carol said it sounded like the kids got lost somehow and ended up encountering a mountain lion, which Grant managed to kill in self defense. This might explain the sudden closeness, but it still doesn’t make sense as to why they were gone so long and came back completely different, physically at least.
Mercedes said that Henry called her saying they were all in an alternate dimension. Despite being a fairly realistic person, Samantha leaned more toward this theory.
Darryl could not have lost all that weight and gained all that muscle in the span of 42 hours, let alone a week even.
And then there were the dads, who all brushed the whole thing off, stuttering and clearly uncomfortable.
The situation was entirely suspicious, but it hurt Samantha’s brain less to just accept this new reality and ignore the excuses that didn’t line up. It must have been a traumatizing experience for everyone, whatever it was.
One little thing struck her curiosity though.
“What happened to your pants?”
Ron looked up from his sudoku surprised. He thought for a moment.
“Not sure,” He said carefully.
She laughed. He was clearly avoiding the question, which just seemed silly.
“I mean how come you don’t wear pants anymore? We can always get you knew ones,”
“Hm,” He said. “I think I just prefer the alternatives now,”
When Ron first came home he was wearing boxers and a button up. After that he wore overalls, skirts, long underwear, just literally anything besides pants and shorts. This was never brought up until then.
She was starting to wonder if pants were a trigger of some sort. Brains are odd things, so she didn’t see why that couldn’t be a possibility.
After that Samantha stopped talking about the Incident and anything even remotely relating to it. She had many questions that would most likely go unanswered and she just had to accept that.
“Mom,” Terry said quietly.
It was a late night. She was still in the living room grading homework. Ron was covering a night shift for one of his coworkers.
(Typically if Samantha was caught up in work past 7pm, Ron would be tucked into her side on the couch and his yawning would remind her they should both start going to bed.)
Terry stood in the archway between the kitchen and the living room, picking at a scab on his arm. She patted the spot next to her, to which he gladly sat on and snuggled up to her.
“What you need?”
Terry was looking at nothing.
“Um,” He said. “Do you know anything about Ron’s dad?”
She hummed with a sigh.
“Or just like, his parents or whatever,” He added quickly.
Samantha never imagined she’d ever have to talk about it with Terry, so this completely caught her off guard.
“Did he say something about them?” She asked delicately.
Tears welled up in Terry’s eyes. Oh no. What could’ve possibly happened to make Ron open up about Willy to a thirteen year old?
“I don’t know,” He said. “He just said some stuff about how sometimes you can love someone and not have them love you back. And that he knows that because of his dad,”
She put his head in her lap and started wiping the tears off his cheeks.
“But the thing is that he was also talking about me,”
Her concern meter was through the roof now. The mama bear in her was frustrated with Ron for saying that to her kid and making him cry, but the other part of her was interested to see where this was going.
“And I really was too mean to him,”
“He knows what you're going through, baby, I promise he wasn’t too hurt by you being gloomy,” She tried to reassure him.
Terry sat up and rubbed his own eyes.
“No, but I was,” He said. “When you weren’t around. He called me when we got lost and I told him to die,”
Okay that is a little too much.
“Terry Junior,” Samantha sighed.
“And I kept calling him stupid and useless and that’s exactly how his dad treated him,”
The familiar sound of Ron dropping his keys came from the front door. They paused. Samantha gave Terry a tired look.
“I’m glad things changed, okay? Just apologize and never treat anybody like that again,” She said.
“I did,” He nodded quietly.
“Oh, hi Samantha and Terry Junior,” Ron waved at them from the foyer.
They waved back.