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look on her face and her eyes were welling up. Matt hated to see her cry. He sat down beside her and put his arm on her shoulder. She sobbed softly, and as he sat there, Matt felt powerless to help.
    They didn’t say anything for the longest time. Matt was lost in thought too. He now had two parents, like most of the kids he knew. But at this moment, he couldn’t find the words to talk with either of them.

chapter five
    After a quiet dinner, Matt helped load the dishwasher.
    â€œI’m tired, Matt,” his mother said. “I’ve got to take some clients out early tomorrow. I think I’d better go to bed.”
    â€œOkay, Mom,” he said.
    She turned and hugged him. The hug felt good, secure in a way, on a night when his world had been turned upside down.
    â€œI just want you to know that you have to make your own choices regarding your father,” she said. “You need to know that I’m okay with it if you have a relationship with him. I mean, if you want, that is…”
    Matt kissed his mom goodnight and she headed toward her bedroom. He was in no mood to sleep, though. So much was running through his mind. He was having lunch with his father the next day. What was he supposed to say? And just what could the man possibly say that would make up for him being gone for all those years?
    Matt felt like he needed to talk to his brother about this. So he grabbed the cordless phone and headed up to his bedroom. He was pretty sure Mark would be home now, no matter whether he had worked overtime today or not. Eight years older, Mark had a good-paying job on the oil rigs near Eton, a few hours away by car. Mark had been eleven when their father left home, not much younger than Matt was now. He wondered how his brother would react to the news that their father was coming back into their lives.
    Mark picked up on the third ring. “Hey, little bro,” he said. “What’s up?”
    Matt quickly launched into the afternoon’s events, how the presence of his father had shocked him and how Mom had seemed quiet and sad during the entire visit. He told Mark about his lunch date the next day.
    â€œWell, that’s up to you, I guess,” Mark said. His voice suddenly sounded a little bit cooler to Matt.
    â€œI’m not having anything to do with that guy,” his brother continued. “He called me earlier this week and left a message. I haven’t called him back. As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t exist. ...He can’t just come back ten years later and pretend nothing happened. It doesn’t work that way.”
    Matt was surprised by the sudden hostility in his brother’s voice. It didn’t sound like Mark at all. Normally, he was so easygoing and levelheaded. Right now, he sounded angry and hurt. Matt knew the emotions weren’t directed at him but they made him feel uncomfortable nonetheless.
    â€œBut what should I do?” Matt asked. “I already said I’d have lunch with him…”
    â€œLike I said, that’s up to you,” Mark said; then he suddenly shifted gears. “How’s Mom, anyway?”
    â€œShe’s in bed already,” Matt replied. “I don’t know. She seemed kind of bummed, I guess.”
    There was a long pause, and then Mark continued. “Matt, you were pretty young when Dad left. Too young to understand it all, obviously. But when he went, he left Mom pretty broken up. It took her a long time to recover. That’s never going to be okay with me. Whenever I do talk to him, that’s what I’m going to tell him.”
    Matt tried to imagine having a father and then losing him around the same age he was right now. It obviously would have been a difficult situation for Mark. Which was worse, having a dad for a few years or not having one at all?
    â€œI’ve got to go, kid,” Mark said. “I’ve got another call coming in. But you take it easy, okay? Do what