The Kingdom Land Read Free

second drawer of a four-drawer
dresser, he retrieved a dress shirt that was seldom worn. A chipped
runner made the drawer difficult to open, but he had never bothered
to fix it. The starched shirt felt awkward, but his donning it
signaled a special occasion he so desperately needed.
    He plopped himself down hard on the bed. “This is
better.” He could feel the slope of the bed which was propped up by
bricks in one of it’s corners to solve a broken leg. It was still
better than anything else he had felt that week.
    Erik had time to kill before his
trip. All week he had dreamed exactly how this evening would go, so
it was time to take a nap. He felt himself drifting off while he
rehashed the dinner conversation with his aunt. That conversation
hadn’t been the start to his evening in any of his dreams. He knew
his aunt was wrong. I wasn’t trying to
start a fight. She needs to listen to me sometimes, and the
conversation wouldn’t have happened if that stupid county agent had
went to the house like he should have. Besides, she doesn’t have
the right in getting mad at me and trying to tell me what to do
with my life. She’s a great lady, but she has her own
problems .
    When he was completely asleep, an all too common
nightmare returned. His dreams took him to another kitchen and a
time years earlier. His dad was still alive and Erik was nine. That
kitchen was in the old house where he used to live with his dad.
His dad had just returned to the table from a phone call that had
interrupted dinner. His picked up his fork to eat, but slammed it
down hard holding his head rather than his fork. He glared at Erik.
It wasn’t a mean glare, but a glare of disbelief. Erik didn’t know
if it he was in trouble, but someone seemed to be. When his dad
left the table, Erik instinctively followed. They got into the old
pickup and Erik didn’t even have to asked where they were going. He
just knew
    They pulled in front of his Aunt and Uncle’s house.
His dad got out of the truck and went into the house as if Erik
wasn’t even there. His dad always walked ahead, but this time his
steps looked as if they were in quicksand and darkness covered the
cement steps.There were men in the house that Erik didn’t know, but
they were obviously policemen, maybe even State cops. Erik was told
to sit at the kitchen table while the adults went into the dining
room; his dad, the police, Aunt Mary and Uncle Henry. Erik could
hear their voices, but not their words.
    Finally Erik was called into the dining room with its
linen covered table. Erik never sat there, when he and his dad
shared a meal with his aunt and uncle, they ate in the kitchen, but
he sat in the dining room that evening. Aunt Mary tried to look
calm with a gentle smile on her face that Erik didn’t believe.
    â€œ Erik, I have something to read to
you. It’s a letter your mom wrote when she had to leave. We, your
dad, wanted to wait until you were old enough to understand before
we read the letter to you. Now we think it is time for you to hear
it. These two gentlemen,” and she smiled brightly at the police,
“just spoke with your mom and she is doing fine, so it’s probably
time for you to know why she hasn’t been here.”
    Erik still didn’t know why policemen would be
reporting on someone if there wasn’t a problem, but their eyes
never left Erik, as if he was the one they were looking for.
    â€œ Erik, like we told you in the past,
your mom got sick and had to go away to get better. She’d be fine,
but she had to go, and she wrote this letter. We, uh, we didn’t
share it with you before ‘cause we thought she’d get better right
quick and be back in no time… But, well, now seems like we better
share her letter with you.”
    Aunt Mary adjusted her reading glasses without
looking at him. Her voice shook and cracked as she began to read
from the paper she held in front of