Jaxsen sat up and smiled for the first time that day with a small giggle jailbreaking from his vocals. “She kissed me on the cheek, Bastian!” he exclaimed, playfully punching him on the shoulder.“Oh, sure, you say that now,” Sebastian teased. “Tell me then, Mr. Michaels, why are you turning all red in the face, huh? You look like a little cherry tomato.” Sebastian poked him lightly on the nose.Jaxsen glared but it soon melted into a smile. Sebastian smiled back, glad he could make his boy laugh. “I’m glad you made a new friend, Jack. And I want to tell you I’m very proud of you.”Jaxsen blushed again, grinned, and looked down. “I didn’t do anything, really,” he denied with a shrug, the blush spreading across his neck and under his shirt.

For three hours Sebastian held the boy close to him, wiping his tears and doing his best to coax Jaxsen back to the now and bring him from whatever visions had him for the moment arrested and detained in the past. Sebastian sat up, needing to try something-anything-to snap Jaxsen out of the pits of his mind. Jaxsen did not move to move away nor did he attempt in any way to keep his balance atop Sebastian’s lap. He was completely limp and if he didn’t know better, Sebastian would have thought the boy to be sound asleep. Sebastian maneuvered the child to where he was straddling his lap. “Jaxsen?” Sebastian placed his left palm against Jaxsen’s right cheek. “Jack, please answer me.” Jaxsen gave him no sign that he’d even heard him speak. There was just a blank mask covering his face. Tears slowly fell completely unnoticed by the eyes that cried them. &ldqu

Jaxsen watched her vanish down the stairs before turning and taking a seat next to Sebastian. Without taking his eyes off the duffle bag Sebastian said, “This, and all its contents, were collected by either your dad or myself from all the places we traveled to together. The bag itself is Glen’s. We traded bags before he went home on our last mission. He took everything we’d collected, split it up and mailed the rest to Ellie for safe keeping.” The bag was a large green duffle with USMC stenciled to the front. It had a simple drawstring with a plastic sliding lock and a handle on the side for carrying. Slowly Sebastian pulled it open, the opening at the top of the bag widening like an attacking shark, all it was missing were the rows and rows of teeth.Slowly he withdrew a chain with two plates, metal in material, with words Jaxsen couldn’t quite see well enough to read. Sebast

Jaxsen sighed quietly as he placed the last remaining item in his suitcase. He hadn’t slept well since Sebastian had told him they would be spending a week at his mother’s house, and that she was anxious to meet him. To say he was nervous, and on several levels, was a huge understatement. The fact that all morning and for the last several days Sebastian had been snapping at both he and Nizhoni, didn’t settle his building anxieties. It was only eight a.m. and already his chest was tight. He hoped things would calm down soon. A light knock made him look up from the folded long-sleeve shirt in his hands.Nizhoni smiled as she entered the room. “Doing alright, Yanaha?” Jaxsen shrugged. He didn’t understand why Sebastian had been so impatient with him. Along with his nervousness about the trip, Jaxsen’s insecurities about his place at Sebastian’s house surfaced wi

When they exited I-41, Sebastian began to notice Jaxsen becoming a bit fidgety. “Jack, you need to go to the bathroom?” He nodded. “Are you hungry or want to snack on something?”“I’m not really hungry, but I’m thirsty. Can I have some chips?”“Whatever you want, sweet boy.” Jaxsen smiled. He had never mentioned it before, but he loved when Sebastian called him that. His father used to call him that and he wondered that if when he was a baby, Sebastian called him that endearment. They let Jaxsen use the restroom and walk around and grab an assortment of snacks ranging from sweet to salty, and in twenty minutes were back out onto the road again. They took the W-115 exit, traveled another twenty-five minutes and exited again.“Welcome to Camelia Populat