I finally felt relaxed and happy again. Things had settled into the familiar routines around the Howe household as dad's health improved. He received encouraging calls from the employment agency and after a few weeks he announced that he would soon be able to go in for short periods of time. Mom's job became easier with the stress of worry lifted from her shoulders and even Brian seemed less horrible than usual.

"Brian tells me you have a boyfriend." Dad was seated in the living room reading the paper when I walked in.

"I do not!"

"Do too!" Brian blurted from in front of the TV.

"Brian you are such a liar!"

"Hey! No name calling." Dad put down the paper and pulled me by the hand to sit on his lap. "Is he really lying?" Dad whispered. I felt my cheeks get hot and dad chuckled and winked. "Is it the boy I met at the hospital, the doctor's son?"

"He's just a friend, dad, he's not a boyfriend like that."

"Is too."

"Bri-a-a-an."

"Okay. Let's leave it at that then." Dad gave me a peck on the head and pushed me off his lap. "Wash up and set the table for mom please. She'll be home soon."

When I was finished I went back and sat on the rug beside dad's chair, trying to decide if I should mention Hector. Mom hadn't said not to. As a matter of fact she hadn't mentioned him at all.

"Dad, do you believe in seeing the future?"

"You mean like a fortune teller?" He gave up on the paper and set it aside.

"Sort of. When you were in the hospital I met a man-"

"Doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee doo." Brian sang, wiggling his fingers and hunching his shoulders.

"I'm warning you, Brian."

"Hey, enough you two. What's wrong anyway?"

"Molly met a man who wasn't there who can read the clouds." Brian started laughing and ran from the room when I started to get up.

"What's he talking about?"

"I met a man named Hector Nublado out in Larkpoint-"

"Larkpoint! What were you doing out in Larkpoint?"

"Dad, please let me tell you."

I went through the entire story including my friend's part and also Garret's. When I told him about mom, he pulled his mouth into a tight line and stared off out the window. I didn't get any further because mom came home and in short order I was in deep trouble, seated at the kitchen table between them while the whole story was thrashed out again.

"We agreed this would not be mentioned again, Molly."

"But mom, he was right!"

"That's nonsense." Mom didn't look as convinced as her words sounded and even dad wore a more than interested expression.

"Why don't we hop in the car and take a run out to Larkpoint?"

"Doug that's not a good-"

"After all, if he said the things you both say he did maybe I should thank this Hector fella personally."

"Please, mom, please!"

"Fine, if that's what you all want but not tonight. I've got laundry and dinners to do and I'm not going out again on a wild- on a useless excursion." We accepted mom's ultimatum and resigned ourselves to waiting for another time. Brian showed me his saucy tongue from the hallway then scooted away as I got up from the table.

*****

"So's your dad still getting better?"

"I guess. He never did seem sick to me from what I saw but I can see that he lost weight and stuff."

"You've gotten over that nutty business about the Cloud Reader guy I hope."

"Carrie, you don't know anything about it, remember? There was so much weirdness around that whole thing I just want to forget it."

"What are you so uptight about?"

"I'm not- I'm just- I've got stuff on my mind."

"Your famous Cloud Reader?" She couldn't resist teasing me and I fought hard against taking the bait.

"If you and Kenny don't remember anything about it, well that's fine. No hard feelings."

"That's 'cause Garret was on your side."

I put down the CD I was looking at and wandered out of the store. "There aren't any sides, Carrie, okay? Can we forget it?"

"So are you and Garret, you know?"

"We're friends." I felt a guilty twinge, knowing that I was happy to have Garret as a friend, a close friend.

"Sure. Friends. Does your friend want to go to the show with us this weekend?"

"I can ask." I said casually. "Which one?"

"Kenney wants to see, The Revenger or something. It's one of those karate things."

"I'll let you know."

I left Carrie at the mall and headed home for dinner; tonight was the family visit to Hector's house. I could only hope that it would be there when our family arrived. There was a lot of negativity among its members.

Mom settled behind the wheel and hesitated before starting the engine. "Are we all certain that we want to do this?"

"Hey, let's go. I don't want to be the only guy not to have met this Cloud Reader."

"I never met him." Brian complained from the back seat beside me.

"Probably never will either." I muttered.

"What's that, Moll?"

"Nothing, dad. It's just that you have to believe that you will see him. I mean really believe."

"Okay. Gotcha. Believe is what I'll do." Dad gave mom a nudge and said to get going. She caught my eyes in the mirror and gave her brows a shrug. The engine turned over and mom steered the car out of the drive and down the street.

The sun had dropped below the horizon and the town was left in a pale, fast fading glow. A light wind picked up sending some small clouds scudding across the darkening sky. As we turned onto the main street leading to the other end of town, Brian shouted and pointed out the window.

"There's your boyfriend, Molly!" I spun around and looked and sure enough, Garret was walking down the street looking very sad and alone.

"Would you like to stop, Honey?" Mom slowed and pulled toward the curb.

"Can we?"

"Sure." She gave a soft toot of the horn and pulled alongside Garret. He looked up and seemed to force his face into a smile, waving as he walked over to the car.

"Hi, Garret," I smiled. "What's up?"

"Ahh, I- I'm just hangin' around." He looked away and shuffled his feet.

"We're going to see the Cloud Reader." Brian blurted and was immediately shushed by the rest of us. "Well we are." He slumped down and pouted.

There was an awkward silence and then dad asked him if he wanted to come for the ride. Mom and I held our breath, as dad began to insist, saying we'd all go to Dippy Diner for a shake afterwards. Garret glanced at me and surprisingly, reached for the door handle, climbing in and squeezing next to Brian.

"Good guy. We need all the believers we can get for this trip." Dad said. Mom gave him a nasty look.

"What's the matter, Garret?" I whispered across the pouting Brian. He just shook his head and looked out the window.

"Hey look, kids! Our first snow of the season." Dad was pointing to the faint, tiny flakes that hit the windshield and immediately disappeared.

The sky grew darker and the snow fell harder only it turned to rain mom started the wipers and I could tell from her shoulders she was nervous about driving. She turned onto the street leading into Larkpoint and a large flash of lightening lit up the sky exposing huge grey clouds that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"I wanna go home." Brian complained, slouching down between Garret and I.

"It's not fun for me either, Brian." Mom said through gritted teeth. "I think we should head back."

"It's right down this street, you said. We here now so give it a look." Dad was wiping condensation from his window and peering into the darkness. The day had vanished and swollen rain clouds had taken over.

The field looked dark and empty and Garret glanced over at me with a surprised look. It seemed to be empty and I patted mom on the back asking a silent question.

"Nothing." Dad sounded disappointed and slightly angry.

"I don't underst- wait! Look!" Mom pointed excitedly as there was a sudden break in the clouds and as the field lightened the shape of Hector's tiny house appeared.

"Huh?" Dad scrubbed at the window then rolled it down and gaped as they could all see Hector standing on the porch giving them a pleasantly polite wave.