.:Innocent:. lA David Cook Storyl l10l

Grace pulled into the yard of her childhood home. A shabby looking singlewide trailer.

Her daddy’s blue truck was parked in the yard. She turned off the engine of the rented Ford Focus. She saw a little blonde headed boy running around the yard. He looked so grown up, wearing camo pants and a little Airborne t-shirt. His hair was spiked up heavily with hair gel. He ran over to a Tonka truck. The same one Grace had played with when she was a child. When she was still….innocent. She sat there looking at him, fighting back tears. He looked just like Gary…

Camden spotted the car and ran inside.

Grace got out of the car and stood there looking around. Soon her mother walked out onto the porch.

She walked up to the porch. “Hey momma.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I told you, I came to get Camden. Did you pack his stuff?”
“He’s not going anywhere.”
“He’s my son. I have the right to see him.”

“You saw him.”

“Mother don’t do this…”

“Don’t do what?”

“Keep him from me. He’s my child. I gave birth to him.”

“Yeah, but you abandoned him.”
“I did not--”

“Yes you did! You ran away in the middle of the night. You left a note that was 5 words long!”

“I’m sorry! I just wanted Camden to have a good life. I wanted to go be a singer or an actress and make money so we could live comfortably!” she yelled.

“Nanny, what’s going on? Who’s that?” Camden said, coming onto the porch.

She almost broke down seeing him. The resemblance was amazing.

“Hey baby.” she said.

“Momma?”

“Yeah.” she nodded.

“MOMMA!” he rushed over to her and wrapped his arms around her bare legs.

She put her hand on his head and looked at her mother.

She turned away from them and walked into the house.

“Baby, how would you like to come live with me? In California.”
“Really???” his blue eyes lit up as he gazed up at her.

“Yeah. I have an apartment. It’s very nice.”

“YEAH!!!”

“Well, lets go get your stuff.”
“Okay!” he ran into the trailer and she followed.

Walking into that thing was like a time warp. Nothing had changed. Same ugly furniture, same curtains, same pictures hanging on the walls. Grace’s dad walked into the living room with a Veggitales duffle bag and handed it to her. “Take him and get the hell out of here.” he hugged her tightly and walked off.

Grace felt…relieved.

Camden came running around the corner with a stuffed dragon and her old baby blanket. “Who gave you that?” she asked.

“Papa.” he said, raising the dragon up.

“No, that blanket.”

“Oh, Nanny gave it to me just then.”

She knelt down to him and touched it.

“You know, this used to be mine when I was a baby.”

“Really? Cool…but…it’s awfully boyish.”

“Well, everyone thought I was going to be a boy. So at Nanny’s baby shower everyone bought her boy things.”

“That’s funny, momma.”

She laughed and kissed his forehead.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

He ran outside. She stood up and took one more look around and walked out.

She walked over to her car. “Momma, can I sit up front with you?”
“Sure. Put your seatbelt on. Make sure it’s tight.”

He nodded and snapped the seatbelt on.

She got in and cranked up the car. She glanced up and saw both of her parents standing on the porch smiling.

She smiled at them and hung her head out the window. “I love you both so much! I’ll come visit you and I’ll bring Camden. I promise you, I’m gonna make a better life!” she said.

They nodded and waved.

She pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.

“Momma?”

“What baby?”

“Can we turn on the radio?”

“Sure.” she reached and flipped it on.

She was in shock. “You’ve got to be kidding me….”

David’s song was playing.

“So, how has your life changed since Idol?”

“Oh, it’s changed in so many ways. I never expected to get this much attention…” I was repeating the same answers since I won Idol. My mind was on Grace. The radio DJ looked at me oddly.

My phone started to vibrate. “Excuse me, I’ve gotta take this.” I got up from the table.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Grace.”
“Oh, hey. How’d everything go?”
“Well, better than I expected it to.”
“Do you have him?”
“Yeah, he’s asleep at the moment.”

“When do you think you’ll be back?”
“Soon, I’m almost at the airport now.”
“Well, I can’t wait to see you…and him. I can’t wait to um, meet him…I miss you.”

“Ha. You miss me?”

“Yeah. I do.”
“Well….I miss you, too….”

I smiled. “Call me when you get back, okay?”

“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye.”

I hung up the phone and smiled. And got back to the interview…