The Forgotten Boy

Millie’s old cabin where her life changed completely. Photo by Garden & Greenhouse.

The silhouette of a tall, scrawny man appeared in the distance walking towards the small cabin built along the mountainside. Millie had been inside, preparing breakfast, when she looked through the kitchen window and saw the figure getting closer. She wasn’t used to having any visitors, so she cautiously walked over to the door as he walked up the stairs on the creaking porch. The door opened, and there was only a screen between them. He lifted his head where his eyes were barely visible under the brim of his worn-down cowboy hat. Millie broke the silence and asked who he was as his face was oddly familiar. “I am your son, Bradley.” The flashbacks played throughout her mind as she remembered her only son disappeared when he was just three years old. “I don’t believe you,” she said. He looked her in the eyes, and the distinguishable scar beside his right eye had reassured her of the doubt she felt. Her heart skipped a beat. She let him in, and he walked inside the cabin. He was hit with the warmth from the fireplace as he sat beside it in the rocking chair. “I’ve missed a lot,” he said as he rocked back and forth. “Ever since I lost you, I haven’t been the same, and it led to me isolating myself from everyone. I just wanted my little boy back,” she barely got her sentence out before Bradley interrupted her, “Well, I’m back now, and I will never leave you again, mom.”