“Well, we better get going for dinner.”
Yay! I’m hungry. “Bye, Conner!”
“Bye,” he says, and it sounds like he’s sad.
“Conner, honey, is your dad going to come soon?”
“Yes, ma’am. He should be here any minute.”
She looks worried again and keeps scanning the park. “I don’t want to leave you here all by yourself.”
“It’s okay. Swear. He’s going to be here any minute.” Conner looks down the road where the bank that has lollipops is. “I think I see him coming.”
Me and Mommy see a man and woman walking up the sidewalk heading our way.
“I’ll make sure my elbow is good,” he says, with a big smile. “Thank you.”
Mommy still doesn’t look sure, but I’m so hungry now I could eat ten kids’ meals. “Bye, Conner.”
“Bye!” He starts walking towards the couple down the street and Mommy and me leave too.
We eat without my dad because he works late in the summers. I eat my first kids’ meal and then beg for another because I’m still hungry. But I can only eat one chicken nugget from it and get full.
As we drive home, I have a bad feeling. “Can we go past the park?”
“Sure.”
I think we’re both worried about the same thing. As we drive past it, there’s Conner, sitting by himself on a bench. It’s dark out now. He’s under the big light with his head down.
“Oh no,” Mommy says as she pulls over.
I hop out of my seat and run over to him, beating her there. “Why are you still here?”
Conner shrugs and won’t look at me.
“Did your parents go someplace else?”
He shrugs again. Then his stomach growls, and he hits his belly to stop it.
I run back to the car and pull out my leftover kids’ meal and give it to him.
“What’s this for?”
“Eat it.” I sit next to him and kick my feet. “It’s chicken nuggets.”
Conner unfolds the bag, and we both smell the French fries first. He stuffs a bunch in his mouth. Then more and more. He gobbles it up like he hasn’t had lunch or breakfast or maybe not even a snack. He even eats the chicken nuggets so fast he doesn’t use ketchup.
“Thanks.”
“Yup.”
I sit and hold his hand while we wait. Mommy’s walking around the park looking for another adult, but there’s no one here but us.
“Conner!” a man yells from the side of the road that has the movie theatre. “Get over here, boy.”
Conner jumps up and quietly says, “Bye” then runs to the man.
My mom doesn’t see it, so I wait for her to come back to the bench. “Taylor, where did Conner go?”
