Troll Daddy's Arc

Chapter 12 of 13

They walked back toward the trailhead in silence. Troll Mother had stayed behind with Troll Baby at the den, trusting Troll Daddy to handle what needed handling. Now the compass was gone and the lesson was taught, but Troll Daddy felt something unfinished pressing against his ribs. But when they reached the clearing where the trail began, Troll Mother was waiting. She sat on a wooden bench inside a stone gazebo covered in moss, Troll Baby asleep in her arms. A metal chest rested open beside her, filled with letters and old trinkets that Troll Daddy recognized from their attic. She held a worn leather pouch in her free hand. She did not look angry. She looked like she had been waiting a long time to ask something. She opened the pouch and pulled out a water-stained letter. She said she had found it hidden in the lining of his father's old jacket, the one Troll Daddy kept in the back of their closet. She had read it after he left to return the compass. The letter was addressed to his father from someone named Thomas, written forty years ago. It asked why he had never come back after taking the compass to deliver it. It asked if he was ashamed or just too afraid to face the family he had promised to help. Troll Mother looked at Troll Daddy and asked him a question he had never let himself answer. Did he think his father had run because he was a coward, or because he believed he could never fix what he had broken? Troll Daddy stood frozen. Troll Brother and Troll Sister moved closer to their mother but said nothing. He realized she was not asking about his father at all. She was asking about him. She was asking if he kept running from one thing to the next because he believed he could never be good enough to stop and teach what his children needed. He looked at the letter in her hands and then at his children watching him. He said he did not know why his father ran, but he knew why he did. He ran because sitting still meant seeing all the ways he was failing, and moving kept him from having to face it. Troll Mother nodded slowly. She folded the letter and put it back in the pouch. She said she needed him to stop running now, because their children were learning to run too. Troll Daddy sat down beside her on the bench. He did not have an answer yet, but for the first time, he let himself sit with the question instead of walking away from it.