Part Four: The Key

Jack rarely left the window for the next three days. He saw Ethan leave the house only once. It was with his mother. They came out and got into the car without a look or a word and returned several hours later in much the same fashion. Ethan appeared to look up to the window on his way in. That night, he opened his blinds and sat at his window with the lights on. Jack got up mechanically and turned on his own light. He sat on his knees on the window-seat, his forehead pressed to the glass so that he could see past his reflection. They contemplated one another for an hour before Ethan pressed his hand to the glass as if to say goodbye and turned away.

On the fourth day, Ethan got up the courage to sneak out of the house while his mother was at work. Jack watched him cross the street and come up the driveway. He listened as the boy’s footsteps crescendoed up the stairs. He didn’t turn around when the door opened, just said, “You’re only going to get us both into more trouble.”

Ethan sat next to Jack at the window. “Mom called the police the night it happened,” he said. His voice sounded rough, as if he’d only used it to cry and shout. “I was listening on the other phone…They told her they couldn’t do anything. Age of consent’s fourteen in Indiana. They said she had to deal with it herself. So if I get caught over here, she’ll ground me. But I’m already grounded indefinitely, and I’m here, so…”

“And if she hires a babysitter?”

Ethan scoffed. “She doesn’t have enough money. She doesn’t even give me lunch money anymore.”

They looked off in opposite directions for a full minute.

Finally, Jack broke the silence. “When did you first realize?”

Ethan leaned his head against Jack’s shoulder. Jack let him, but resolved to stop him if he tried to go any further. “I…I dunno,” he said. “I guess I knew it right away, but I didn’t wanna admit it. There were a couple of times I remember really thinking that I liked you. I think the first time was the first day you took me to school. You…smiled at me and I almost thought it, but it…I dunno, I just pushed it back. Then on my birthday. And after that, I started thinking you might like me too, because you brought me brownies on Valentines Day, and there was this one time that you touched my leg in the car, and that’s when I really knew it. And I wanted…I dunno, just…you, and I wanted to tell you, but then I got scared, like, what would happen if I did? And you said you wouldn’t go out with Mom unless I said you could, and I guess I just thought that, I dunno, you were trying to tell me, but I wasn’t sure, and, when you were sitting at the window, I…I wanted you to come and lay down with me, but you never did. And then when you woke me up, at first I thought you were, but…And there were lots of other times when I just wanted to tell you so bad, but I couldn’t. Then after camp, I was worried that you and Mom had, like, gotten together or something…You said you wanted to propose to her and I thought, it’s now or never, right? Like, I have to do this right now or I’ll never get another chance. So I…just…did.”

Jack surveyed Ethan to make sure that he was done, then took a breath. “Ethan, I’m flattered but…”

“You know,” Ethan started, cutting him off, “I wouldn’t mind waiting for you. I mean, it’s only three-and-a-half years. That’s not that bad. And when I’m sixteen, I can drive, so I’ll be able to meet up with you any time I want. And when I’m eighteen, I can move out and she can’t do anything about it, right?”

“Ethan,” Jack said firmly, pushing the boy off of his shoulder. “You’re not listening to me. I’m not going behind your mother’s back to have a relationship with you. It‘s ridiculous.”

Ethan laughed. “I know what The Advocate is, Jack. I looked it up after I saw your copy. So it’s not like I don’t know. You weren’t into in her at all, you just wanted to--”

“I’m afraid you’ve jumped to an incorrect conclusion. I did care very much for your mother, and I still do. My tastes aren’t exclusive.”

Frowning, Ethan said, “What about me?”

“You’re fourteen, Ethan. I’m far too old for you.”

“Do you like me?” he demanded.

Jack paused, not wanting to hurt Ethan’s feelings…not wanting to lie.

“It doesn’t matter whether I do or not,” he said. “I’m three times your age, your mother would in no way approve of such a relationship, and--”

Ethan cut him off with a kiss. Slowly this time, sweetly, his hands pressed to the man’s chest, clutching the fabric of his shirt.

“Ethan,” Jack said softly, breaking it off. “Laura’s just pulled into the driveway.”

The boy squeezed his hand, nuzzling the side of his throat, then left.

Ethan tried to cover up where he’d been; he went out through the back and followed the alley to the opposite end of the block, but Laura knew.

She called Jack the next morning.

“We’re moving out of state,” she said. “If you ever contact my son again, I will call the police, no questions asked.”

Jack was denied the opportunity to defend himself by a click and a dial tone.

The next week, he watched the moving van pull up again, watched Laura haul everything into it while Ethan sat defiantly on the step, looking up at the window. When the hatch on the back of the van was closed, Jack pressed his hand to the glass. Ethan reluctantly broke eye contact and got into the passenger side of the van. Slowly, it rolled away down the street, picking up speed, then turning a corner out of sight forever.

Jack went out to his car and rummaged around in the console. Under all the CD cases was a keychain on a metal clip. It only had a single key. When he had touched Ethan’s thigh, it brushed his hand. He took it, as a prank.

He didn’t know why he had kept it.

He walked across the street and unlocked the front door, stepping inside and closing it behind him. He went down the hall, paused at the end, his hand on the doorknob. Slowly, he turned it and let the door swing open.

He made three circuits of the room before he slid down against the wall onto the floor in the far corner. Shallow indentations in the carpet told him that, yesterday, he would have been sitting on Ethan’s bed. He ran a hand over the carpet. Imagined Ethan lying here writing his secret stories…Got up. Walked to the window. Looked up at his own. Pressed a hand to the glass where Ethan had almost two weeks before.

It was only then that he noticed that his ring was missing.

And had been since the last time Ethan held his hand.