"Ah..." He sat down and nodded, his words coming out despite himself. Alex looked down, then glanced at her, uncertain. "He, ah... well, he originally met my mom when he showed up, with no memory, at her work. They fell in love, and had me and my younger brother, but he was already having blackouts, where he would vanish for days on end. He wouldn't deal with them. They started having arguments again and again, enough to drive me to go over to work on electrical things in the neighboring trailers just to have something to do, and take my baby brother with me."

Alex shifted on his feet, eyes distant, face red, as he remembered it all, the whole damn tale coming out now. truth to tell, no one had ever asked before, which maybe explained why she was getting the whole thing.

"Eventually they had an argument that shook the whole trailer park with their words, and rather than fix things, he just walked off, vanishing into the night. Only thing he left me other than a lot of meandering talk about stars and dreams was a telescope. It's the only thing I miss about home, really, my telescope." He couched when he finished and then blushed.

Her words came to him and he flushed and sighed.

"I'm sorry. Here I am spilling out an old stupid story, and you're missing you're husband. You must think me a selfish fool." Heat flamed his cheeks even more as he looked down, rubbing his face. Not that there were any tears there. Nope.

Definitely not.