That day before, when Caleb came into his life, they had gone and done all the necessary paperwork. It would take time for the more permanent things to go through but as of now he had temporary custody of his six-year old little brother. Because of his lack of damn near everything, Caleb was a closed book. Molly had registered Caleb for homeschooling, she though it would be best until some normalcy was established.

Already, Justin was feeling trapped. He couldn’t breath with his sister always telling him what to do. There was also the house, she had insisted him, and Caleb stay at her house until she found them an apartment. It was all too stifling. He knew he couldn’t do this. He started packing his things, if he slipped out of the house before everyone woke up, he wouldn’t hear the bitching from Molly.

“Justin?” the quiet voice startled him in the room.

“Go back to sleep, Cal.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ve got a job I have to do.”

“What do you do?”

“I go around the world taking pretty pictures and writing about my adventures.”

“Adventures?” For the first time since he met the boy the day before there was a small light in his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Is it fun?”

“I enjoy it.” He more than enjoyed it, going where wind blew him was in his blood.

The little boy got up and grabbed his trash bag, he wasn’t big enough to even drag it.

“What are you doing?”

“Going with you.”

Justin’s heart broke. “Oh, Cal, I’m sorry, I can’t take you. I live out of my van. It’s not a life for you.”

“But Daddy said if you don’t keep me Mommy could come back and take me. I don’t like it there, I’m always hungry and Sir is mean.”

“Sir?”

“I’m not allowed to say his name. He hurt my arm last time I said it.”

Justin wasn’t a violent person, but he wanted to find Caleb’s stepfather and kill the man.

“I thought you would be trying to sneak out,” the loud voice said, causing Cal to whimper. “Sorry, Caleb,” Molly said, seeing she scared him.

“Cal I’m going to speak to Molly outside this door. I won’t be far, alright?”

Caleb didn’t look sure, but he nodded.

Justin grabbed Molly’s elbow and led her outside the guest room. “Molly, I can’t do this. I’m not built to take care of a child. I like my life.”

“Well, grow up buttercup, this isn’t about you. This is about that little boy who didn’t ask for any of this. If I could take him without worrying that his mother could take him away, I would. You’ve been carefree for over twenty years, it’s time to grow up. I love you; god knows I do but this isn’t about you. You’ve never had to do anything you didn’t want to do. I had to take care of Mom through the drinking. When Dad refused to pay my way through college, I worked a full-time job and a part time job just to make it. I was cleaning up Mom’s vomit when she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. I’m asking you to put just one person in front of your selfish ass.”

She turned and stormed across the hall and went into her room. Going back inside he looked at Caleb. “Ready for that adventure?”

Brian felt the chill in the room. Molly had been a bear the last few weeks. He didn’t know much about what happened but apparently her brother left without so much as a goodbye. Now he had to deal with the woman who was ready to go off on anyone. He was supposed to be the feared one here, not her.

“How is the Campbell account going?” he asked her.

“Fine,” she gritted out.

“Is it just me or are you pricklier this morning.”

“My brother just put up his new adventures. It’ll be Christmas next week and he’s going to have that little boy on the road again.”

“Little boy?”

“Sorry, I’m been too pissed off to talk about it with more than my mother and husband. The reason my brother was here was because my father asked him to be. Turns out he has another child, one as young as my daughter. He wants Justin to care for him when he dies, which will be any time now. But my brother doesn’t do responsibility. I caught him trying to sneak out and leave Caleb with me. I would take him in a second but there is a too big risk with his mother and stepfather, so it has to be Justin. I yelled at Justin, first time ever. I’ve had over twenty years of pent up rage at him. I never said anything and always kept it bottled up because I was scared that he just wouldn’t come back after that. I would rather him come around every few years more than never. But I’m just so angry. I’m always the one that has to clean up his messes. I just want him to be a grown up.”

“Sound like you want him to be someone he’s not. Did he leave the kid?”

“No, after I yelled at him, I went to my room to stew, he got his stuff and Caleb’s and left. It’s been radio silence since then, then this morning he posted on his magazine’s website. He has a traveling blog with pictures that are on the site, if you buy the magazine you get to see his full article on the place, it’s a good setup.”

“Sounds like he has the life he wants.”

“But it’s no way to raise a child.”

“Says who?”

“What?”

“Who says it’s no way to raise a child? There are so many different ways to raise kids. Partridge Family did it, worked for them.”

“Be serious, Caleb is a scared little boy, he needs stability.”

“What’s the website?” he asked.

She gave him the address and he typed it in his laptop. They were in the conference room so they shouldn’t be disturbed.

“There, that one,” she said pointing to the blog tab. He opened it and it opened up to a huge gallery of hundreds of places.

“He’s been busy,” he said, looking at the thumbnail images.

She sighed. “Yeah. Click there, it’s his newest.”

He clicked on it and about twenty scenic pictures loaded up. There was a title over the pictures, Mystic Christmas. Mystic, Connecticut was at the side of the screen. The first few pictures were all of the seaport. The pictures were amazing he felt like he was there. In the last few pictures, he saw a boy. In a picture of a lighthouse, the small boy was smiling at the camera.

“Is that him?” he asked pointing at the little blond boy.

“I didn’t see these. Yeah, that’s Caleb. Oh god, he’s smiling.” The boy was bundled up in thick looking pants and a thick snow coat with mittens and cap that his head with his hair poking out.

Brian looked at his employee, he saw that she was tearing up. “What’s wrong?”

“I just wanted him to stay here. Why can’t he be happy here?”

“I don’t know, you told me your childhood wasn’t great.” His wasn’t either.

“No, mine wasn’t great. Justin’s was a fucking Norman Rockwell painting. He always had both our mother and father. Dad would come home, and Justin would show a drawing, or a grade and Dad would coo and say how smart he was. The ONLY time Justin had to deal with our dad being upset at him, he left. I understand he was kicked out. But I don’t understand why he never came back because he didn’t…not really. He’ll visit a day or two every few years, but he doesn’t think of others. He’s always been a selfish prick and he still is. All that said, I just wish he would be my brother just fucking once. I was homeless for a year during college because I didn’t have the money for student housing. I would dream of him showing up and us living together.”

“Did he know you were homeless?”

“Well, no, but only because I didn’t see him for another year after that. He was traveling Europe at that point, living in hostels and doing god knows what for money. My brother is extremely lucky, you have no idea. He could stop to piss on the side of the road and find a bag of money, no joke that actually happened to him.”

“What did he do with the money?”

She smiled and shook her head. “He looked for days to find out who lost the money. Finally, he found them on a social media page for the area, begging if anyone found to bag to call them. He called them gave the money over and refused a reward.”

“I don’t know, he doesn’t sound selfish to me. Maybe because he doesn’t live the life you want him to it may seem like that. But a selfish person would have kept the money or maybe turned it into the police and not care if it was ever found by the owners. I think you’re upset because you love your brother and wish he were around more; you wouldn’t want that if he were a truly selfish person. Trust me, this I know.”

“Let’s stop talking about my life and get back to the Campbell account,” she said not wanting to listen anymore.

“Bye Fred,” Justin said sadly.

“Bye Fred,” Cal repeated.

Justin had to board Fred, he called Dean about his change in life. As soon as Justin mentioned that he might not be able to keep working because the van isn’t a home for Cal, Dean reacted. What happened next took a few weeks but as of this morning, Earth Time Travels Magazine became the proud owner of a ten-year-old RV. It was nice, real nice. Justin had saved the magazine so much working for them the past twelve years, he hadn’t ever needed to ask for them to pay for a hotel room or comp dinner for him. Dean flew in to sign the paperwork and meet Caleb. Dean was paying for Fred to be in storage. Now Caleb had his own bed, a place to play, eat and even just watch television if he wanted. Caleb had been running through it since he picked it up.

They pulled away from the storage lot, waving at Dean who was taking an Uber back to the airport.

Caleb was safely buckled up in the recliner, Justin heard him singing to himself.

“Do you know where we’re going now?” he asked the boy.

“No, where?” he asked excitedly.

“Pittsburgh.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be just for Christmas, if I don’t come home for it with you, next time our sister sees me she’ll throw something at my head.”

Cal giggled. After a moment or two Justin heard the tv cut on and cartoons start playing. It was good, when he first got Cal, the boy had never seen a cartoon. How in the world did that happen? His father might not have been as cruel as Cal’s mom and stepdad, but he didn’t help him like he should. Justin then felt guilty, his father was dying, it must cause pain every time he moves but he had gotten up and fed Cal. He would try and be more accepting. He had roughly eight hours to work out what he was going to say to his sister. He had even set up his phone with automatic payment, he hadn’t even thought of it until Dean suggested it. Apparently, his boss didn’t like only reaching him through email either.