His grip lessened, but he still held her arms. He looked at her closer.
"You don't remember me do you?"
He had to think back. There had been a girl who had lived down the street from them. She was the only he would talk to after his mother died. He let go of her arms.
"Why did you sneak up on me?"
"I did not sneak up on you. I didn't want to disturb you."
She was rubbing her arms. There would be bruises where his fingers had been. He didn't apologize for that.
"It took me a little while, but when you walked past again, it hit me who you were. Where have you been all these years?"
"Living in hell."
She wasn't going to ask him to explain it. Her arms were still sore. Now would be as good a time as ever to tell him.
"If you're looking for your brother, he's not here. After you left, he was sent from home to home. No one could handle him. He finally left on a train for wherever. No one has seen him since."
That's not what he wanted to hear or came back for. He wanted to find out why his mother died and who could have been responsible for her death.
She was studying his face, trying to read what he was thinking. Even when they were kids, it had always been difficult. She thought about asking him to her house. He probably would turn her down, but she had to try.
"Would you like to come to my house? I don't live far from here."
He hesitated, wondering what she was trying to do.
"Alright."
It wasn't but a couple of blocks to her house. He noticed that they hadn't changed much over the years. But there was something about them that wasn't right. Some of them were empty. They soon were at her house. He noticed she didn't live far from where she grew up.
People saw her walking with the stranger. They knew she hadn't dated anyone for a few years, especially since the divorce. No one though came up to ask her, one look at her companion kept them from asking. It was a modest home with a nicely kept yard and the usual flowers and shrubbery.
"It's not much, but it's mine. Do you mind if I change into something a little more comfortable?" He shook his head. In a couple of minutes she came back out in a sweat shirt and pants and went to the kitchen.
"Are you hungry? I can whip up something fast."
He didn't feel like eating. "No."
She had to ask. "Why did you go away?"
There was a moment of silence. He was looking at her with eyes that any normal human would run away from, but she was not going to be intimidated. She was wanting to know, for all these years she had kept his memory locked in her heart.
He was wondering should he tell her, not having trusted anyone all these years. She was not backing away. He had to give her credit, she had courage. He decided to take a chance.
"After my mother died, rumors went around about her and an affair she was supposed to have had. My younger brother was to have been the result of that affair. Dad would do nothing to stop the rumors. I had a pretty good idea who was spreading them. I tried to get them to stop, but it only worsened. When I got into a fight with them, they tormented my dad all the more, causing him to have heart failure. Because of it, they told me I had better leave or they would do more harm, this time to my brother. He never knew what happened."
She listened, showing no emotion. But she could understand why he left. To think that all these years he had to stay away, his younger brother never knowing the real truth. There was something else though, something he wasn't saying.
"I understand, but there has to be some other reason you came back."
He could see that she wasn't satisfied. He decided to let her know the real reason, hoping she was like she had been in when they were younger.
"I came back to find out the real reason why my mother died. There was no way she could have died naturally. When I do find out, there will be hell to pay."
Now that she thought about it, it was rather odd that she died all of a sudden, and no one knowing how.
"How are you going to do it? The minute you try asking questions, they will start to wonder. Let me find out. I can gain access to any information that might help. Someone here in town knows the real reason she died."
He had not wanted to trust telling her, but now that she knew, it seemed
that would be the most logical way. The less anyone knew, the better.
"Do you have a place to stay?"
He nodded and told her. She told him she would start the next day as the shop would be closed. She was disappointed that he already had a room, wanting him to stay with her. He left to go back to the hotel.
Once he got back to his room, he started having second thoughts about having told her, having wanted no one to know. Why, he wondered to himself, had he opened up to her.