Where is Bill?

Bill and his mother, Susan were in a lot of trouble. In the small town of Livingston, it’s common for people to help out one another in times of need but those two lost that privilege a long time ago. Bill has been raising havoc all over town for years and it’s finally caught up to him. His mother has cancer. The doctor told her she only has a couple of months left, maybe more if she was more active. The truth is however, she probably only has a few more weeks, with or without activity she doesn’t have much time left here.

Bill’s father lives in Detroit making cars and he sends home checks when he can to support them. Susan takes advantage of it, she barely worked a day before she got sick and now she relies on Bill to bring in extra cash. Unfortunately for Bill, he’s too dull to realize she’s taking advantage of him and too stupid to maintain a real job so he’s resorted to stealing.

We all know he’s the one who's been stealing from shops but all the owners pity them too much to do anything drastic about it. They let him get away with it and call it even.

On the bright side, Bill tried to send a letter to his father telling him about their situation. His hope was that he could send home some extra cash, or even come back and help out around the house until Susan died. Sadly however, Susan found the letter before it made it out and it was never sent. After several weeks of no response Bill confronted Susan.

“Momma, why hasn’t Papa written back yet?” Bill asked her.

“Well I don’t know sweetie it must not have reached him yet. You know they have a lot of mail to process.”

“I guess that makes sense, but you still did something bad.”

“Pardon?” Susan retorted. She sounded worried and was hiding it poorly. Susan began to perspire, she was fearful Bill had learned of her deed.

“You did something bad didn’t you momma?” Bill said. He was starting to get angry.

“No baby, no. I didn’t do anything.” Susan knew she was caught and was trying to find anyway to get away with it. “Why, would I not want you to see your father?”

“What are you talking about Momma? What do you mean?” Bill had no idea she had stolen the letter to his father.

“Nothing. It’s nothing baby.”

“I never said anything about Papa, do you know something Momma? Do you know why Papa isn’t writing back to me?” Susan cracked. She couldn’t lie to her son anymore.

“Yes Bill. I know why Papa hasn’t written back to you. I stole the letter you tried to send to him.”

“Why Momma?” Bill asked. He looked like he was about to cry. He couldn’t handle the fact that his own mother wouldn’t want him to see his father and he was starting to get angry.

“I don’t want to see your father again. He left because I kicked him out not because he needed to work.”

“Then why is he sending us money all the time?”

“It’s because he wants to come back and he thinks that sending money will help him do that.” Susan explained.

“If he wants to come back Momma why won’t you let him? Let him come back Momma!” Bill cried.

“No. Your father is not coming back as long as I’m still living. When I die, which won’t be much longer, he can come back but until then he stays in Detroit.”

“No,” Bill said. “I’m bringing Papa back. Before Susan could stop him, Bill lept from the couch and ran out the door. Without much thought he went to the garage and grabbed his bike which he stole the year before and began to ride north towards Detroit. Susan called out to him from the porch.

“Where are you going Billy?” She shouted.

“Detroit!” He yelled without looking back. “I’m going to go find Papa.”

Bill rode for miles determined to make it to Detroit on his own. He soon realized however that he would not be able to make it the entire way just on his bike. He had made it about twenty miles before he had to stop. It was becoming too dark to see and he was very tired. He stopped under an overpass and lied down in the grass and promptly fell asleep.

The next day he awoken by the sunrise and the sound of cars passing by on the road next to him. He looked around him trying to gain his bearings and saw a sign a ways down the road that read; “Missouri 10”. He hopped on his bike and rode the last ten miles to the border where he found a rest stop and went in to find breakfast. Inside he found a package of peanuts and a bottle of water. He didn’t have money however so he hid both in his sweatshirt and went to the bathroom and climbed out of the window and made his way back to where he left his bike. To his dismay however, his bike was gone! He looked all around the rest stop but didn’t find it. Defeated, he set off to make the long walk home. He hadn’t made it far though when he saw a semi truck parked on the curb.

“Maybe he can take me home.” He thought. As he approached the trucker he thought of his mother and realized that he was still angry at her.

“Which you headed north?” Bill asked the trucker.

“Sure am. Need a ride?” The trucker said. Bill nodded. He wasn’t going home after all, he was going to go find his father.

“My name’s Dave, where you headed…”

“Bill, my name’s Bill. I’m going to Detroit to find my father.” Bill told him. Dave chuckled.

“Well it’s your lucky day Bill, I’m headed to Detroit right now.”

Several days later Dave and Bill arrived together in downtown Detroit near where Bill’s father worked. Bill thanked Dave for bring him up and exited the truck. All he had to find his dad was the address of the warehouse where he worked and an old picture of him.

Bill looked all over town to find the address for his father’s warehouse but to no avail. After a while he stopped to rest on a bridge. He stood up on the rail of the bridge to look out over the city around to see if he could find the warehouse where his father worked.

One month later Bill’s father received a letter. His wife had died of cancer two weeks prior and his son had gone missing.