Mort stood in the driveway to his house.
He froze, his fathers van was parked in the driveway.

His father was standing in the driveway and his mother was standing on the deck, Allen was asleep in her arms. Mort's mouth went dry when he noticed the grave look on her face. He noticed that
the van was full of boxes, He had a feeling that his father wasn't going on a business trip this time.
Mort walked up the steps and into the house. He dropped his backpack on the floor in the middle of the living room and walked back outside to his mother's side. He felt her hand on his shoulder, she held him close. It was then that he noticed that his mother was in tears, they rolled down her snout and dripped onto the dry boards of the deck, creating wet splotches, much like the spring showers that grazed the island creating rainbows across the bay.

"you know, you don't have to do this David," his mother said solemnly
"............yes...yes I do Kerry" his father said tonelessly.
"goodbye...i hope you find happiness wherever you go." his mom croaked
"Goodbye, Kerry, goodbye Mort " his father said.
Mort opened his mouth to say goodbye and shut it again.
Mort watched his dad jump into the van, its engine roared into life. The van disappeared down the driveway and out of sight.
An oppressive and heart wrenching silence followed.
"Come inside with me," his mom finally said, stifling her tears.
They walked inside together. His mother put Allen in his playpen in the living room and walked into the kitchen.

They sat down at the table
He looked into his mother's glassy tear swollen eyes,
normally they twinkled an ethereal cobalt,
they looked like gray dead pits now.
Mort stared back vacantly.
"Mort, your father is leaving us,"
"Is he going to come back?" he asked,
his mother pulled a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose
"will I ever see him again?"
"I wish I had the answers for you, all that I can tell you is that the next few months are going to be very hard. Don't worry about it to much, the most important thing is I want you to take out of this is that none of this is your fault. and that your father and I both still love you. If you have any homework you might want to start it I need some time to myself"
Mort took his backpack to his room, he threw it on the floor, he closed his door he sat down on his bed, he looked around at all of his toys and sighed, he didn't feel like playing now, not after what had just happened. In fact he would give away all of them just to have his father back.

---

Mort opened his backpack and realized that he had forgotten his math textbook. He sighed, there was no way he could do his homework now. He realized that maybe it was for the best he would deal with it later, right now his thoughts were on his father. Why had his father left?
Mort's mind reeled.
He heard his mother crying in the living-room.
Everything had seemed so normal yesterday, how had this happened?
His father was gone, shouldn't he be sad? Shouldn't he be crying?
Mort was terrified to find that he didn't know how he should feel, all of his emotions canceled one-another out and all he felt was bleak numbness.
"He will be back soon" he thought.

---

He sat down at his desk and re-read his report. He was very satisfied, he had even included several crude doodles showing how tornadoes formed. At least he had his report done and done well. The math homework could be done at lunch or at worst during recess.

---

Dinner was very quiet. Even Allen who wasn't even two years old, realized something was wrong. Normally he babbled contently in his highchair, tonight he sat quietly, he looked up at Mort with his big glassy blue eyes. Eyes that seemed to ask, where is daddy? Mort sighed. He cleaned his plate off, put it into the dishwasher and returned to his room. The house was far to quiet without his father's presence, normally after dinner he would go downstairs to his father's workshop and spend the rest of the night in the basement. Tonight would be different, Mort pulled out a deck of cards and played several dames of solitaire, he ran the deck twice before bed

********************************************************************************
Mort fell asleep quickly he was completely drained, today had taken a lot out of him, hopefully his father would be back in the morning and everything that had happened over the course of the day would turn out to be a long and complex nightmare.

---

The next morning he turned in his report he hoped that he would at least get a B+ on this one, he had spent a great deal of his time researching. Mort was surprised that Mrs. Briggs was quite understanding about his missing homework.
"It helps if you copy down all of the problems in a notebook so you don't have to lug the entire textbook back and forth...as for your homework I expect to have it tomorrow or else it will be counted as a zero on your grade, understand?"
"yes, I understand," Mort said.
"I saw your report, " she smiled, "I have to admit I like the drawings, your only problem is your penmanship is terrible, besides that everything looks good."
"Thank you, " he replied. The bell rang for lunch, the day was half over.
They lined up and went to lunch. As Mort devoured his turkey sandwich he realized that maybe he had been to harsh on Mrs Briggs. She might be really strict, but she was no heartless monster.

---

The bell rang for recess. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mira Dane the hyaena he had noticed on the first day of school, talking to a teacher, she appeared to be quite upset about something. Were those tears in her eyes? He couldn't make out what it was she was saying,
"Probably better of not knowing, " Mort thought
He was going to get in line to go outside when someone grabbed his arm it was Mrs. Briggs
"You are coming with me, " she said sternly. Mort gave her a confused look,
"What's wrong? " he asked.
"Don't act like you don't know! you don't kick someone and get away with it. " she snapped
An icy cold hill ran from the tips of Mort's ears to the end of his tail, The fur at the nape of his neck prickled his stomach did a back-flip and his mouth went dry.
"But..i," he stammered.
"No buts," Mrs Briggs sneered only detention. Mort was half drug down the hallway. He noticed with horror that everyone was watching him, several other students he didn't even know,
(one was an ocelot the other was Great Dane) laughed and pointed.
Mort Felt his heart sink, this was not good. He was so confused, what had just happened? Why was he being drug to detention?
He was brought to an unfurnished room, with a desks there were big wall like deviders between the desks, the walls were an ugly puke/avacado green.
"Sit down," Mrs Briggs snapped.
She let go of his arm. Mort cautiously approached a desk, and sat down. another teacher mort did not know entered the room, she was caring a huge folder full of papers.
"You know what to do, " Mrs. Briggs said,

"if he causes you even the slightest bit of trouble we'll call his parents, then it is out of our hands. "
The pit in Mort's stomach slowly widened when he overheard that.
Mrs Briggs left him alone with the other teacher, who was a german sheppard. She handed Mort the file.
"Don't cause any trouble, be quiet and get this done by the end of the day,
and we won't call your parents."
Mort looked at the folder, it was quite thick, there were no less then twenty pages inside.
There was a pencil on the desk. Mort quickly got to work, a lot of it was crappy review and he breezed through it. The last page came as a bit of a surprise. It was an entire page of math, and it was something they had never gone over in classes. But upon closer inspection Mort realized that it was quite simple, he finished the final page minutes before the bell to go home rang. He was quite proud of himself.
He handed the enormous stack of school work folder and all to the teacher.
She silently led him back to class so he could pick up his belongings. He got on the bus, as soon as he did the sky opened up and it began to pour.
" What happened today?" Mort asked himself. And so another day of school had come to a close.

---

When he returned home he had half expected to see his father. His mother was busy on the phone, he figured his father would be in his shop working . Mort walked downstairs, the shop was completely empty, all of the equipment, and workbenches had been removed.
The only sign that there ever had been a workshop were little drips of solder.
Stains of what had once been.
The room was stark and empty now.
Mort quickly ran upstairs.

---

Why was this happening?
His father was gone and he had suffered an entire day of detention.
That night he lay awake in bed, tears streaming down his face.
Suddenly thoughts of Allen invaded his flow of consciousness.
What of Allen, would he have to endure a childhood without a father present?
He was only a little cub. Mort then realized that it was his responsibility and duty to look after Allen; to be a guiding force, to be the big brother.

The night was so quiet, there wasn't so much as a breeze outside,
Mort looked over and his nightstand the voice recorder still sat, he pressed the button and his fathers voice spoke from within.
" Goodnight Mort, I love you"
It was only then that reality set in, his father was not coming back.
A fresh wave of tears ran down his snout, . Suddenly he realized that he felt much calmer now, his father was not completely gone, he was still with him in the voice recorder.

---

The next morning Mort woke up to french toast, he felt much better about everything that had happened over the course of the week. Nobody had said that life was going to be easy, Liam had called he had been invited over for the day. His mother dropped him off at Liams house.
"I am glad you are getting out of the house today," His mom said
"Don't let what has happened bog you down, and remember you can always come and talk to me if you are having trouble. And most importantly, have fun."
Mort nodded silently and got out of the car and walked up Liam's driveway.
Liam was waiting for him in the doorway.
"Hi, how is it going?"
"I have been better," Mort replied
"I can believe that, I heard about what happened. Do you want to talk about it?" Liam said
Mort sighed "Yes, but not out here,"
"How about over cookies?" They walked into the kitchen, there was the rich unmistakable smell of chocolate chip cookies baking wafting from the oven.
Liam's mother had gave them a tray heaped with cookies, and told them to have fun.
They bought the tray to Liam's room, and set it on his desk
Besides wanting to talk to you about yesterday there is a second reason I called you over, Liam said solemnly.
"What's wrong?" Mort asked
"My family is moving," Liam said, his eyes gazed over and he wistfully stared out his window.
"Really, where are you moving to?" Mort relied hoping it wasn't out of state
"Some place called North Rockhaven, thankfully it isn't so far away, it is only a half an hour drive away from here, so we can still see one another every so often, but sadly we won't be seeing one another as often."
"I am going to miss you man," Mort said holding back his tears, he began to reminisce on days past, long summers days spent in the pool together, cold winter afternoons playing in the snow and lobbing snowballs at the trees, that in their imagination were enemy soldiers. The camping trip Mort's family had invited his family on. They had spent the entire day toasting marshmallows over the fire and exploring.

"you are like my only friend, like a second brother to me," Mort choked
"Yeah me too," Liam said wiping the tears from his eyes
"I am going to miss this place, I am going to be going to a new school, going to miss everyone."
"We need to keep in touch," Mort said.
"I will give you my new phone number when we get settled, we are leaving next Saturday" Liam said.
"Best of luck," mort smiled weakly.
"Thank you" laim beamed
"Now what is this I hear about Mrs Briggs dragging you to detention?" Liam said wide eyed
"No one seems to know exactly what happened, I have heard stories ranging from you kicking the crap out of Mira Dane to you getting in a shouting match with Ray Young, what happened today?"
"I am not quite sure myself," Mort growled, "I guess both stories are partially true. Ray young did mouth something to me during lunch, I couldn't understand what he was saying, but he wasn't happy. He has it in for me.
We were lining up to go outside, the next thing I know Mrs Briggs started yelling and dragged me to detention."
"But did you kick her" Liam asked again
"If I did it was an accident," Mort said.
Liam smiled
"Fair enough for me. Although I must admit, it is quite strange. did they call your parents?"

"No," Mort said as he ate a cookie from the tray, "the whole thing makes no sense."
"My only advice is stay away from Both of them," Liam frowned cramming another cookie in his maw
"I KNOW Ray is trouble, but this Mira doesn't sound much better."
"It is going to be kind of hard to avoid them, they are both in my class." Mort frowned
"You got that right, ray young was in my first grade class. I already had issues with him then."

---

They ate dinner in the basement Liam's father had ordered a pizza and they sat around the TV and watched cartoons until it was time for Mort to go home.
His mother's car was parked in the driveway was waiting for him in the driveway. He climbed into the backseat and buckled himself up.
"You have a good time Mort?" His mother asked.
He nodded
"good, you needed to get out of the house after everything that has happened. They drove home and Mort quickly got himself ready for bed, he curled up in bed. He pushed the button on the voice recorder.
"Goodnight mort, I love you" his father's pre-recorded voice said
"Good night" Mort replied wearily.

---

The next morning Mort invited Liam's family over to his house.
His mom and Liam's parents sat in the backyard and drank their coffee, watched Allen play in the sandbox, and talked. Mort took Liam to his room.
"I want to show you something," Mort said, he began looking for the metal puzzle he had been fooling with several nights before,
"what's this Mort?" Liam asked, he was holding the voice recorder.
"It is a voice recorder, it is the last thing my father gave me before he left." Mort took the recorder and pushed the play button, but it wasn't his fathers voice that came from the speakers. Instead it replayed:
"what's this Mort?"
"It is a voice recorder, it is the last thing my father gave me before he left."
"You accidentally pushed the record button didn't you?"
"I guess so mort," Liam said, "I'm sorry,"
Mort sat don on his bed and found himself crying like the upset and scared cub he was.
Liam sat down next to him, he put an arm on his sholder.
"I am so sorry," he said solemnly.
Mort was silent for several minutes more, he quietly left and grabbed a tissue from the bathroom.
"Like you said it was an accident, it is OK"
"That must have been one heck important message I recorded over,"
"it was a recording of my father,"
"Oh my god," Liam said,
"my mom told me about what happened, I can't even imagine what you are going through right now,"

"Like I said it is ok, it was just a crutch anyways. I have to face the facts that he is never coming back."
"You don't know that for sure," laim said, "you can't give up hope, it is one of the few things you still have. You may not see him tomorrow or next week, but you will see him again someday soon, because that is what families do. even if your father did leave he still loves you."
"Thanks," Moart croaked.
"you would have done the same if it was me," Liam said.

---

Later on that afternoon Liam left with his parents, mort waved goodbye, it was a solemn affair because they both knew their days were numbered. Liam would be moving in a few days.
That night Mort realized that the voice recorder had stopped working altogether, he threw it in the wastepaper bin with all of the other refuse from his desk
"better off without it," Mort thought, "I don't need anymore reminders that he is gone,".
He realized that he didn't miss the recorder one bit, it passed out of his memory like a bad dream.

---

The next week passed quicky, and Mort realized that the depression and pain he was experiencing due to his fathers absence slowly subsided every day. He was overjoyed that he recieved a 95% on his report, it was the highest grade he had seen in quite some time.
Things finally seemed to be improving until he saw the for sale sign on Liam's front lawn one afternoon. It was a testament to a bygone era.

---