Close to the Broken Hearted by Michael Hiebert Page A

tellin’ you what he was lyin’ ’bout?” That question didn’t even make sense to me.
    â€œThis is why it’s not sittin’ so well, Abe. Part of me thinks I’m bein’ a fool for caring ’bout this at all. I mean, of course he had a past. Everyone has a past. Why did I expect anythin’ different from him? But for some reason, I never thought of his life before we met, and since he never mentioned it, it was like it never existed. And that life led into the life we spent together. So, in a way, to me, he had no life before our marriage. Our marriage was his life. Now I find out about all this stuff and that he really did have a life that led into our life together, and so it changes our marriage in a way. It’s sort of like our whole life together was a lie.”
    She was sounding crazy, but I wasn’t sure I should tell her that. “Maybe Pa just didn’t think the stuff that happened to him ’fore he met you was important. Maybe in a way he liked pretendin’ his life didn’t really start until he met you.”
    Her head jerked up and her eyes met mine. There were tears in hers, but they looked surprised.
    â€œDid I say somethin’ wrong?” I asked, worried I was about to get in trouble.
    She took me in her arms. “No, Abe. You just said possibly the single most right thing you’ve ever said.”
    â€œI did?” I asked, my voice muffled by her shirt. I wasn’t even sure what I’d said. This conversation had stopped making total sense to me a while back.
    When she let go, I asked, “Will you tell me what it says about Pa now?”
    â€œWell, for one thing, the woman you met? Addison? She probably really is your aunt.”
    I couldn’t help but smile. I’d met family. “Really? Is her last name Teal like mine?”
    â€œYup. Least it was last time these records were updated. Unless she got married since. And you do have two grandparents livin’ in Georgia. I knew he had parents. He had mentioned them from time to time, but only in passing. He told me he didn’t get along with them and sort of left it at that. From what little information I gathered from your pa, your grandpa ran the house like some sort of military sergeant. I never dreamed they was livin’ barely three hours away the whole time. The way your pa talked, it was like they was clear across the country or somethin’.”
    â€œI have another granddaddy!” I said.
    â€œAnd a grandma,” my mother said.
    â€œWow! This is really great! I can’t wait to tell Dewey! Are we gonna meet ’em?”
    She looked at me sternly. “I dunno yet. That waits to be seen.”
    â€œWaits for what?”
    â€œFor me to decide.”
    I looked down at the table. “Oh.”
    My mother flipped to the last page. I could tell there was something on that page she really didn’t like.
    â€œWhat else does it say?” I asked.
    â€œNothin’ that concerns you.”
    â€œPlease? He was my pa and I don’t know nothin’ ’bout him.”
    She looked into my eyes for a second.
    â€œPlease?” I asked again.
    â€œFine, I guess.” I watched her swallow hard before she continued. When she did, her voice was much quieter than before and it sounded like she might be holding back tears. “Says here your pa was married once before. Can you believe it? You know how young he was when he married me? He’d barely turned twenty. Well, he was even younger when he married her. He was only eighteen. They lasted two months.”
    â€œThat makes you mad?”
    â€œHe shoulda told me.”
    â€œSo you could get mad at him?”
    â€œSo I would know.”
    â€œWhat would you have done?”
    â€œGotten mad at him.”
    â€œI’m bettin’ that’s likely why he never told you,” I said. Why did this all seem so easy for me to understand and yet my mother