Promise by Judy Young Page B

and trust, and faith. Maybe Dad is just like me. Maybe Dad needs those things, too . Kaden decided he’d give Dad time. He’d wait until Dad was ready.
    Kaden started the song over one last time and sat down with his peanut butter and raisins. He had taken only a bite when he heard a vehicle pull in and drive up to Gram’s cabin. His heart started racing but he decided if it was Dad again, this time he wasn’t going to hide. Kaden took a deep breath and went to the door. A blue truck sat idling in front of the cabin. Emmett’s blue truck. Kaden stood at the door while Gram got out, said good night, and came inside.
    â€œIt took a while, but I got that school all straightened out,” she stated matter-of-factly, smiling at Kaden. Gram seemed to be in a good mood and Kaden didn’t want to say anything to rile her up again. He decided he wouldn’t tell Gram that his father had been there that night.
    Kaden said good night and went to his cabin. The music was coming through the intercom. Without turning on thelight, Kaden walked across the room in the dark, turned on the bathroom light, and brushed his teeth. Then turning off the bathroom light, he crossed the room to his bed. When he pulled back the quilt, he heard something drop onto the floor. He walked back to his desk and turned on the light. On the floor was a small photo album. On the cover it said, “Photos for Father.”
    Kaden opened the album and looked at the first picture. He had seen it before. Emmett had a copy of that photo on the wall. A baby picture of him in a crib. He turned the page. The next picture he had seen before, too. He was sitting in a high chair, a cake with one candle in front of him. Opposite that picture was one of him astride a plastic horse on wheels. That baby toy was now in a back corner of the junk cabin.
    Kaden flipped the page. There was only one more picture and it instantly made him catch his breath. He was about two years old and he was sitting on a man’s lap. His dad’s lap. Kaden was laughing in the photo.
    Kaden sank down to the floor. A song played softly through the intercom as tears rolled down his cheeks. In the photo, his father was looking at him with the proud and loving look Kaden had longed to see from his dad for as long as he could remember.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    THE SIGN

    Kaden didn’t know how long he stared at that photo, but the next thing he knew, birds were chirping and sunlight was streaming in through the curtains. He opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor, the desk lamp still on and the photo album opened to the fourth picture. Kaden took one more look at the photo, closed the album, and raising up his mattress a little, slid it under.
    When he went into Gram’s for breakfast, Gram was in her dress again. But it didn’t surprise Kaden this time. The dress had nothing to do with study hall. It was because of the sign.
    Gram got on the bus with Kaden.
    â€œI wouldn’t normally be going,” Gram told Doris. “I’msure I’d see that sign sooner or later but Mr. Price personally asked me to join him this morning at the unveiling.”
    Red flags went up in Kaden’s mind. He suspected Mr. Price’s invitation had nothing to do with the sign and everything to do with Gram’s recent uncharacteristic visits to the school.
    When they got to Emmett’s, he was waiting by his truck.
    â€œSorry, folks,” Emmett said as Doris opened the bus door, “but Greta and I have to get going. We need to be at the school before everyone else. It’s a beautiful morning, so I left muffins, coffee, and juice for you two on the picnic table out back.” Kaden was relieved Gram wasn’t insisting on riding the bus to school again.

    At school, instead of pulling around to the back, Doris pulled into the cars-only drive. All the students, middle school and elementary, piled off the bus and crossed to the grass strip. The