Same Old Song

by Brenda Dorantes

  "Daddy, the sky?" He asked, raising his arms over his arms. It’s his absolute favorite thing in the world when I throw him up in the air and catch him. Well, aside from airplanes. It always gives Katherine a mini heart attack in the process.

  And like the whipped father I am, I comply with his demand. He screams with joy, asking for one more with each throw. He loves it. Anything that has to do with the sky, airplanes or pilots is his fascination. It was hard to tear him away from the window the first time we took him on a plane. The stewardess was so smitten by him, she brought him to the cabinet to meet the pilot and see the inside of it. Since then, we've bought him his own pilot’s hat he never takes off.

  "No more." I groan when I get too tired to throw him again and set him on his toddler legs. He gets heavier every day. "Remember our plan?" I whisper in his ear. He nods, giggling with excitement. "Go."

  He doesn’t waste a second as he runs inside the house, screaming like a madman and leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. Kathy gives me a what have you done? look and runs back in the house with Elizabeth. It might not seem like a big deal, just a three-year-old with some big energy, but the thing about Charlie is that he is a walking tornado. Turn your back for a second and he will turn the house upside down. His little stunt gives me enough time to go back in the car and get her Valentine’s present Charlie and I have picked out for her. Since Beauty and the Beast is one of Katherine’s all-time favorite Disney movies, we bought her a golden enchanted rose necklace. And I say we because the moment my little boy saw the necklace at the jewelry store, he demanded we got it for her. Kathy is looking for Charlie left and right in the house when I walk in and Elizabeth on her back on her playmat doing her new party trick which is to put her toes in her mouth. Katherine stops looking for him when she sees me standing at the entrance with roses in one hand and a velvet jewelry box in the other. A wide smile spreads through her beautiful face.

  "Happy Valentine's." I give her the roses and kiss her. She kisses me once more and swoons over the roses, they’re her favorite. "We also have a dinner reservation tonight."

  "Aidan, what about the kids?" She asked. Then it clicks in her head that Charlie is still M.I.A. "Charlie!"

  I turned her back toward me. "Charlie, isn’t there something you want to give to mommy?”

  Kathy is about to protest but gets interrupted when Charlie comes out running from his hiding spot. I catch him and kneel down to his height and give him the velvet box that contained his mother’s necklace. He gives me a nervous look, his cheeks blushing like his mother’s. I gave him an encouraging nod and nudged him closer to his mother. He raises his little hands to Katherine, handing her the box and says, “Happy Valentine’s Day, mommy.”

  Katherine awed and kneels down to our son’s height and takes the box from him. She opened it and a huge smile broke out.

  “It’s beautiful, Charlie. I love it.” She pulls him in a huge and smothers him with kisses. “I’ll never take it off, baby boy.”

  Charlie giggles against his mother’s chest and hugged her tightly. It amazes me the love he has for her. She is, in fact, his favorite person in the world, no one can ever take her place in his life. Just like his parents, my boy lives and breathes for his mother. Kathy pulls away enough to look at him. She brings her thumb to her lips, moistening the end and softly cleans the dirt off his chubby cheek.

  "Your face is always dirty," she whispers and kisses his forehead.

  Charlie smiles and runs to his sister to start to annoy her by poking her cheeks. Kathy looks at me and asks, "So, I take Anna and John are watching them tonight?"

  "Yes, they offered. Alex and Leila also offered, but it’s Valentine’s and I figured you wouldn’t want our children around them while they are in their baby-making crises."

  Alex and Leila have been trying to have their own baby basically since Jessie got pregnant, but after two years went by they took it as a sign that maybe it wasn’t time. Things then got a little crazy when Katherine found out she was pregnant with Elizabeth while she was at Leila’s. It’s been another year of them trying, but the result is always the same. It made Kathy feel guilty at the time since we all know there's nothing in this world that Leila wants more than to become a mother. When they come over, she's all over Charlie and Elizabeth trying to be with them, even says Kathy could use the help.

  "Figured," Kathy replied. I lean in to kiss her, but as usual, Charlie jumps off the couch screaming no! and tries to pull Kathy from my embrace. I always see this coming. I turn Kathy around and kiss her cheek, calling her, "My mommy!" to piss him off.

  He then starts tugging at my jacket until I finally let her go. Not that he actually has the strength to pull me away from her. Kathy carries Charlie in her arms. He hugs her with his arms and legs and smirks at me with triumph. That little brat. Charlie has always been a jealous little man when it comes to his mother. Ever since he could barely sit up, he would whine every time I kissed her in front of him or even hug her. Then when he mastered the art of getting out of his crib, he would climb into our bed and push his way between us. He is a severe Mommy’s Boy.

  I walk to Elizabeth, who I haven't said hi to and pull her on my lap.

  "Hello, my little princess." I kiss her little forehead and lay her on my chest, her favorite spot. This little girl has me wrapped around her little finger, there's nothing I wouldn’t do for her. She could ask me to murder someone and I would. I play with her growing hair, which she has inherited from her mother once again.

  I watch how Kathy soothes Charlie, softly swinging him side to side in her arms, kissing his hair and stroking his back. He lays his head on her shoulder, his eyes are closed and smile plastered across his face. It's a beautiful image. My wife and son are together like it's always been.

  "Daddy was trying to be nice to Mommy," Kathy said to him.

  "Daddy loooovvvessss Mommy," I mock, making him tighten his grip around Kathy.

  Kathy throws me a warning look, but she can’t hide her own amusement. I change the cartoons to the news channel where the regular programming is interrupted by some breaking news. Another car crash just happened because of driving under the influence, claiming the lives of the couple that were hit. That's the second one this week. Police are begging people to be cautious and that this is not a joke. Whoever is caught driving under the influence will be sent to jail without hesitation. The families of the victims talk on TV, crying and saying how much they're going to miss their loved ones that are now gone.

  I turn the TV off. "We don't need to see that," I tell my little family.

  Later that night, Kathy and I drove the kids back to my folks’ place. When we get there, Charlie jumps out of the car as soon as Kathy unstraps him from his car seat and runs to my dad when they walk out of their house. Dad catches him in mid-jump and swings him around making airplane noises. Charlie will one day break that man’s back if they keep going like that. I get out of the car and unstrap my baby girl.

  "Don't worry, Kathy, we'll call if anything happens,” Mom reassures my wife as I make my way to them. "Oh, my little girl!" She squeals at the sight of Elizabeth and takes her from my arms.

  Katherine and I just stare as my parents smother my chil- dren with their attention. They haven’t even said hi to me.

  "Now you kids have fun, okay? Just be careful. We have everything settled," Dad said as he sets Charlie down.

  Charlie runs to me, pouting his lips for a kiss. I let him kiss my cheek and watch him kiss his mother on the lips. Kathy takes his glasses off and wipes the dirt off them, then gently pushes them up his nose.

  "If it’s not your face, then it’s your glasses. You always have to have something dirty every time I look closely.” She kisses the tip of his nose. "Be a good boy, okay?"

  "Yes, Mommy."

  I wave goodbye to my parents as I drive their driveway and off to the restaurant just in time for our reservation. The dinner is fantastic, just like any other time I've spent with Kathy. Talking,
laughing, being goofy and some other serious conversation in between. It’s been quite a while since we’ve gone out just her and me, our shared time is mostly spent with the kids, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Of course, there are also moments where I like to have her all to myself and tonight is no exception. She never ceases to take my breath away. Especially with her red cocktail dress and her hair in a high ponytail. She’s beautiful.

  A while after we're done with our dinner, music starts to play in the background. Us by James Bay. It’s perfect for a dance. I stand up and offer my hand to my wife.

  "Dance with me," I said.

  Kathy takes my hand without hesitation.

  "Of course."

  I guide her to the dance floor, where we are joined by other couples and start swaying from one side to another. She lays her chin on my shoulder, resting her hand right above my beating heart. It beats with a purpose, it beats for her. I bury my face in her hair, inhaling her sweet intoxicating smell. We’re wrapped up in our own little bubble, our own little world where nothing else matters but us. It’s what happens. You give yourself solely to the person you love in hopes they accept you for who you are, with what makes you flawed, but also what makes you perfect. You take everything about them, even the bad and you grow together. You learn more about each other with each passing day.

  Katherine and I are still growing, still learning about each other and even ourselves. It’s not always as perfect as it seems, we do sometimes bicker at each other, but it’s nothing we can’t overcome.

  As the song continues, I start to softly whisper the lyrics to her ear, earning a little giggle from her.

  "Are you happy?" I ask, pulling away. She looks at me with a look that said don't be stupid. "I'm serious."

  "What have I told you about asking stupid questions?" She replied.

  I laugh and give her a pinch on her hip, making her jump. "I just want to know.”

  "Well, you tell me. I have two amazing kids, a great job, an amazing and very handsome husband that's very sweet and romantic and a beautiful home. Why don't you add them up?"

  I look up, pretending to sum it all up. She looks at me as I keep pretending until I grabbed her by the waist and pull her closer to me. “Now that should be criminal.”

  "It is very good," she agreed with a laugh.

  After the dance is over, we decide it’s time to go back home. Katherine can never stand being away from the children for too long. She lays back on her seat and takes my hand in her as I drove us back to our children. The drive is pleasant, quiet, almost too peaceful. There is not much traffic on our way home. The streets are dark and silent. There aren’t many people out this late at night.

  But the peaceful silence is brutally broken when the car in front of us loses control suddenly and I have to hit the brakes hard and swirl the car around to avoid impact. It’s so sudden and hard, it throws Katherine and me forward, but I’m quick to throw my arm over her and push her back against the seat. The car in front of us goes in circles until it hits a pole. Then, there is silence once again.

  I groan. The side of my head aches where I hit it against the window.

  "Baby, are you okay?"

  "Yeah," she groans. "Yeah, I'm fine." I take her hand as she straightens up in her seat, rubbing her forehead. "I just hit my head." That didn't seem to matter much to her when she took off her seatbelt and said, "we have to help them."

  She got out of the car before I got time to register what happened. She runs to the van, checking the backseat for any children and then opens the door to the passenger side. I got out of the car to help her.

  “Hey, man, are you guys good?” The man from the car behind us asks from his car.

  "Yes, thank you. You alright?" I ask him when I see his wife and kids in the car.

  "Yes, we're good. What happened?" He gets out of his car and walks to me.

  "The people in front of us lost control of their car. My wife and I are going to check on them," I told him.

  "I'll go with you." He follows me to the crashed car where Kathy is helping the old woman out of the passenger seat.

  "I don't know what happened," the woman cried.

  "It's okay, sit down," Kathy told her and helped her sit on the sidewalk.

  We help the woman's husband and their dog get out the car and sit them on the sidewalk. The man kept on mumbling apologies and said that he lost control of his car due to something that jumped right in front of him. Kathy kept on assuring them that everything was fine and it was only a small accident.

  The old man looked in shock, the woman never looked up, as if she was too scared of what she would see if she looked at their car. The old man kept telling me and the man from the car behind us that he was sorry that he didn't want to cause an accident, let alone risk anyone’s life. We said it was okay.

  Once the police arrived and verified everything was okay, they let us go home. I drove us back to our kids as quickly as I could, Kathy was impatient to get back to them.

  "You do realize what that could have been?" She said, her focus was lost in the dark view ahead of us.

  She thought about it as well. It was the fact we almost crashed, the fact we could have caused a tragedy or become the tragedy. I knew this but I chose not to say anything. Not to the old man who kept saying sorry, not the old woman who seemed too scared to even look at her car, yet Kathy reassured them that everything was fine, everything was okay. But deep down, we were both terrified of the alternative outcome.

  When we got to my parents' place, Katherine ran to our children. She held them, she kissed them. Elizabeth was asleep when I got her, but Charlie was in a sleepy daze. He wanted his mother to tuck him in bed and give him his goodnight kiss, just like every night.

  Once we got home, I tucked our daughter in her crib and kissed her goodnight. After, I secretly watched Kathy putting Charlie to bed, tucking him in like a burrito.

  He said to her, "I love you, mommy."

  And Kathy responded, "I love you, Charlie. Always." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. The only thing that made him want to stay awake at night was that kiss. That goodnight kiss he can't go to sleep without.

  She stayed in that position for a while, watching him until he eventually fell asleep.

  The last thing I did that night was to hold my wife and looked out the window into the starry night.

  "Thank you," I whisper to her.

  "Hmm?" She hums half asleep. "What?"

  I smile and kiss the side of her head. "Nothing. Go to sleep, baby."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Aidan

  One Year Later...

  Katherine is walking around the living room with Elizabeth in arms when I walk through the door. Elizabeth is unconsolable just as she was when I first left to go pick up the medicine my mother advised me to get for her fever. My poor girl has been battling her fever all night long and has had very little sleep as a result. Charlie sits on the edge of the couch, eyes glued on his sister who has not ceased to cry. Katherine looks relieved when I take out the medicine and take Elizabeth from her.

  It’s a struggle trying to get her to take the medicine at first, but soon after I cradle her in my arms in hopes she will soon fall asleep. Katherine sighed, pulling her hair away from her face and sitting down beside Charlie on the couch. She looks exhausted. She was the first one up when Elizabeth woke up crying in the middle of the night and has not left her side since. I kiss the side of Elly’s head and hum to her as her crying ceases to quiet whimpering.

  "Daddy, is Elly okay?" Charlie asked as he crawled on his mother’s lap.

  "Yes, she’s a little sick, that’s all," Katherine said to him, pulling his hair from his face.

  “She was crying too much.”

  “Look, baby, Elly is just tired. You know how when you're sleepy you get really grumpy?” He nods. "Well, Elly is very sleepy right now and that has her very grumpy, but thanks to the medicine I brought her, she’ll start to feel better."


  Charlie crawls out of his mother’s lap and tugs at my shirt, trying to pull me down toward him. I support Elly’s head with one hand and kneel down to his height. She’s calmer now. Just like my mother said that medicine works wonders. When I’m at the same height as him, Charlie puckers his lips and kisses the back of his sister’s head. I smile at my little boy. He has, in fact, the biggest heart any four-year-old could have. Kathy smiles at us from the couch and pulls Charlie back in her arms, raining him with kisses all over his face. My little boy squeals in delight and tries to fight his way out of her arms.

  Unfortunately the moment is interrupted when my phone rings. I answer the call without having to look at the caller ID.

  "Yes, Alex?"

  "Hey, so apparently I'm a child-"

  "You don't say," I interrupted him. Charlie's glasses fall down his little nose and Kathy pushes them back up.

  "Shut up," he snapped. "Look, just because I don't want to get my sperm tested now means I'm a child because my wife is an impatient woman who expects me to pop a baby for her one day."

  "I’m pretty sure even Leila knows that is not technically possible." He's always exaggerating with everything his wife says.

  "Stop being an asshole. I told you to give me Elizabeth."

  "And I told you that is not going to happen, Alex. Why did you call, anyway? I'm your brother and unfortunately not a therapist for your wife's obsessive need for a baby," I reply.

  "Well, you ignorant bastard, I was calling you for a play date," he mused. "Just a guys night, Matthew is coming. You can also bring Charlie along since he's another man of the family."