Chapter 4

“Not sure. She left us when I was twelve. She could be in Columbus, Miami, or San Francisco. I’m really not sure. Some days, I don’t even think I want to know her whereabouts.”

“Your dad never remarried, did he?”

He shook his head. “Copper likes to be single. I don’t think he’ll ever be with another woman after my mom left him.”

Silence fell between us like a thin curtain. Crickets.

Then I asked, “Tell me more about your mother.”

He told me his mom’s name, Felicia Dae-Carlow, and added, “I look just like her. Tall. Blond with blue eyes. She’s Norwegian. My mom taught school to prisoners in downtown Pittsburgh. She helped criminals obtain their high school diplomas. My father said she lost her mind over that job, and that was the reason she ran away.”

“Do you think you’re anything like her?” I asked. It seemed a simple question, but I didn’t know what else to ask.

“Maybe. I don’t have an answer to that question. Sorry.”