THE BABY OATH

by Sophia Gray

“Why?” Cal said, his throat burning a little from the harsh smoke he just inhaled into his lungs. He actually didn’t smoke much at all. He preferred drinking, but having cigarettes around was a part of the MC lifestyle. It would have felt weird not to have them available, and it came in handy in situations like these. He could feel the tension in the air start to dissipate as they smoked together, both of them becoming more relaxed in their chairs while the boys giggled and chased each other in the yard below.

  “Because it’s just the way my life has been going recently,” Antonia said, pausing in her words to suck some more on her cigarette. “You want to hear something funny?” she said, leaning forward a little bit over the table with a grin across her face. It looked so disarming, so out-of-place among her other features that it took a couple seconds longer than usual for Cal’s mind to comprehend her question.

  “Sure,” he replied, pretending to be interested in the sight of the children playing in the yard below the porch. They look happy, he thought in a far-off, distant way, his emotions completely disengaged from the scene before him.

  “Yesterday, I got fired and evicted within an hour’s time,” Antonia said before collapsing into hysterical giggles, clapping her hands together like she’d just said the most hilarious thing ever. “Can you even believe that?”

  “I can’t,” Cal replied honestly.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter if you do or don’t, I guess,” Antonia said. “You’re not going to hire me anyway, but it’s the truth. That’s just the way things go for me.”

  “That sucks,” Cal said, turning to look again at Antonia, who was staring out at the two boys with a smile on her face. This time it looked genuine, like she actually felt something just by looking down at them. Cal wondered what that must feel like, having a son around for years and years rather than just two days. Maybe one day I’ll be able to look at Bobby and feel the way she feels towards her kid…Cal thought to himself. But no. That was ridiculous. Sooner or later he was going to find Briana, make sure she got sober, and reunite her with her son. That was the way this had to go. Anything else was just a weird fantasy. He wasn’t a father, not really.

  “You’re making a huge mistake not hiring me. I’d be the best at the job. You really should reconsider,” Antonia said, a sudden tone of confidence in her voice. She sagged, totally limp, against the chair she was sitting in.

  Cal considered laughing at her, treating it like a silly joke before getting her to take her son and leave. But for some reason he was captivated by this twinkle in her eye, this weird gleam of light that seemed to emanate out of the darkness of her eyes. Suddenly, she looked like she had all the answers, like she was much wiser than Cal could ever hope to be. “Why should I?” he asked. “Why should I reconsider my decision? Really, tell me. I’d like to know.”

  “Because I want it the most,” Antonia said, pulling the ashtray in the center of the table over to her side to put out her cigarette. “More than that, I need it. I will work harder for you than anyone else you’ve talked to today, because I don’t have any other choice.” She paused, staring at him with an intensity that made his skin squirm, his body begging him to move out of the way of her piercing gaze, but Cal held his ground, staring back at her as well as he could manage. Somehow he guessed that he wasn’t nearly as intimidating or impressive-looking as Antonia was, even dressed as dowdily as she was.

  After a long, silent pause between them, Antonia finally dropped her penetrating stare and reached for another cigarette, taking the lighter right out of Cal’s hand to light the cigarette herself. When she blew out the smoke, she did so in Cal’s direction, so that he could practically taste it against his tongue. “Now are you going to give me a job or kick me out of here yourself?” Antonia asked as she returned the cigarette to her mouth, breathing deep like she needed the smoke to survive.

  “I could call the cops, you know,” Cal said, raising his eyebrows in silent warning. But Antonia didn’t look at all upset by his threat, straightening up in her seat with her shoulders pushed back, looking much tougher than she had before when she was trying to be nice, as if she’d found her strength somehow during the course of their conversation.

  “You’re not going to,” Antonia said, now looking and sounding totally self-assured, as if he’d already given her the job.

  “No, I’m not,” Cal said, nodding. As the leader of the local MC, the police didn’t like him very much anyway, especially since the Bone Breakers had gotten in trouble with the law more often than usual lately. “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. This is probably just going to be a short-term position.”

  “Why’s that?” Antonia asked, her eyes narrowing almost suspiciously at Cal.

  “Because he’s not my kid. Well, he might be biologically, but between you and me, I never saw him before two days ago. And it’s been a nightmare ever since,” Cal said, the words tumbling from his mouth like he’d been holding them in for too long already.

  “Does he not listen to you or something? A lot of kids are mischievous at that age,” Antonia suggested.

  “No, no, it’s not that,” Cal said, shaking his head. “I don’t know. He seems like a good enough kid. But it’s not for me. I just have to keep him alive and in one piece until I can find his mother and get everything back the way it’s supposed to be again.”

  “Hmm,” Antonia said, tapping her finger along the edge of her cigarette. “Well, if you want my opinion, be clear about what’s going to happen with the kid. You can’t let him hope for something you know he won’t have.”

  “What do you mean?” Cal asked, leaning forward a little bit in his chair and dropping his voice, even though the back yard was so big that there was little chance either of the boys could hear what they were talking about.

  “Just speaking from experience,” Antonia said. “It’s easy for kids to get messed up because of their parents. I know I’ve already done a number on Daniel, just because I can’t seem to make things work with his father.” She paused, licking her lips and taking another long drag of her second cigarette. “Anyways, I should shut up about that. I don’t want you to make your decision based on pity. You can’t raise a kid to be like that, or else they’ll never learn to be tough.”

  “You’re already hired,” Cal said, the decision slipping from his mouth without his brain’s full permission. He didn’t know why he did it. There was nothing particularly impressive about her, except for the fact that she seemed to communicate more directly than any other applicant. There was very little bullshit in how she operated, as far as Cal could tell, and for some reason he felt like he could trust her to treat Bobby the same way. Maybe she even reminded him a little bit of Briana, the way she used to be years ago, before things gotten bad between them. Whatever it was, his gut told him what to do, and he just followed along, praying that he wouldn’t regret it.

  Antonia was frozen in place for a few long seconds before she finally coughed and put her cigarette out. “I—thank you. Thank you so much. I’ll work so hard, I swear.”

  “I know,” Cal said. “You can start tomorrow if you want. I have a lot of shit to do, so it would really help me out if you could by here early, like say, 7 am or so?”

  “Yes, yes, absolutely, I definitely will!” Antonia said, grinning from ear to ear. She turned towards the yard, yelling at her son, “Daniel! Come on! Come here, we’ve got to go!” Then she turned back around to face Cal, the same charming gleaming smile glued on her face. “Oh, by the way, do you know where the nearest motel is?”

  “Um, I think there’s one about two miles from here, down the road past the gas station,” Cal said. “Why do you ask?”

  Antonia’s smile faltered, then, but didn’t slip off her face entirely. “Oh, well, it’s nothing, really, it’s just…” She sighed and paused before saying in a rush, “It’s just that I got evicted, you know, and I don’t have a place to stay tonight so I was going to go to whatever motel was closest…” She blushed a deep red and dropped
her gaze again, the surge of confidence from before seeming to abandon her all at once.

  “Oh, I see,” Cal said, unsure of what else to say.

  “Daniel! I called you, now come on!” Antonia yelled out into the yard until the boys slowly came walking back towards the adults. “I’ll be nicer to your son,” Antonia said with a sheepish smile.

  Cal didn’t know why he couldn’t stop himself, but before his brain caught up to his mouth he blurted out, “Move in with us.”

  “What?” Antonia said, turning to look at him with her brow furrowed, confusion written all over her face.

  “Tonight, get your stuff and move in,” Cal said, his pulse now pounding in his head as he got to his feet and gestured for Antonia and the boys to follow him back inside. “Look, I’ve got a huge house full of rooms I never use. You can pick something out tomorrow morning when you move in.”

  “You’re serious?” Antonia asked, her mouth agape as she stared at him. When he nodded, she tore her gaze away from him for a moment to look around the huge living room, her eyes going wide as she drank in every detail of the richly appointed room. Cal noticed that she smiled a little as her eyes landed on the shining chandelier above their heads.

  “Mommy, I’m hungry,” Daniel said a moment later, tugging on the bottom of his mother’s shirt to get her attention.

  “Me, too!” Bobby said. “Daddy, can we have waffles? I want waffles.”

  “Yeah, waffles sounds good!” Daniel exclaimed, throwing himself down on the couch and leaning over the coffee table to stare at the coloring book Bobby was working on earlier in the day.

  “Daniel,” Antonia said in a warning tone of voice, snapping her fingers two times, making Daniel sigh deeply and get back on his feet, pouting in disappointment as he retook his place by his mother’s side.

  “Do you have money for dinner?” Cal blurted out, again losing control over his tongue, as if it had a mind of its own.

  “Uh…” Antonia said, looking embarrassed as her eyes darted between Daniel and Cal, like she was unsure of what to say.

  “Here, let me give you an advance for your first week. That’ll give you enough for a motel if you want one last night away from this place, and then also to get some food in your bellies. How about, say, five hundred dollars to start with?” Cal suggested.

  “Five—five hundred dollars?” Antonia stuttered out. “Just for showing up here tonight? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, money’s not really an issue for me,” Cal said, opening up his wallet and handing over some bills for Antonia to take. She hesitated before grabbing them, then stared down at them for a long moment, like she wasn’t even sure they were real.

  “Now can we get waffles, Mommy?” Daniel asked in a small voice.

  Antonia grinned, reaching down to ruffle her son’s curly hair. “Yes. We can get waffles.”

  Bobby made a small whine under his breath, but if anyone else but Cal heard it they chose to ignore it. Cal felt a little pang of guilt at the base of his stomach as he glanced over at Bobby, noticing how pathetic and sad he looked as Antonia and Daniel headed back over to the front door. Maybe it will be good for him to have another little kid around the house, Cal thought to himself as he followed the two out to their cheap, sad-looking car. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he was perhaps trying to justify his irresponsible decision to offer housing to two people he didn’t know at all, but he pushed that nagging thought away, too exhausted to analyze himself at the moment.

  “7 am, okay?” Cal said as he opened the door to the backseat for Daniel to climb up into Antonia’s car.

  “Got it,” Antonia said, grinning as she gripped the steering wheel. “Thank you so much, Mr. Amos. It is Mr. Amos, isn’t it? I thought I saw that was your last name on the ad you posted online.”

  “You can call me Cal,” he said, tapping the hood of the car and beginning to walk away.

  “Hey!” Antonia shouted out of her window, causing him to freeze in his tracks. “You just made the best decision of your life! I promise!”

  “Okay!” Cal said back, waving a little before he walked back inside his house, where Bobby was waiting for him. He felt a wave of anxiety crash over him just looking at his young son. What was he doing, putting him in the care of a whacky woman with little to no credentials?

  He shook his head at himself, dislodging the anxious thoughts before putting a hand on Bobby’s back, leading him into the kitchen and dining room area of the house so he could fix something quick for dinner.

  All his life, he’d only ever gotten anything he wanted by following his gut. He couldn’t stop listening to his instincts now, even if he did have a young life depending on him.

  “Cal…” Bobby said, sounding like he was struggling to force the word out of his mouth. “Can we have waffles, too?”

  Cal found himself smiling down at his son for what might have been the first time that week. “Yeah. We can have waffles. I’m going to warn you, though, they might be shit. Or. Sorry. Poop. I forget that I can’t say that word in front of you.”

  “It’s okay, Cal,” Bobby said.

  “Anyway, I’ll try my hardest.”

  That was all he could do, right? His best, even if it wasn’t good enough. Who am I kidding? Cal thought to himself as he pulled out the ingredients to make waffles. I’m definitely going to fuck this poor kid up. Jesus help me.

  Chapter Four

  Antonia

  “Just…a little…more,” Antonia panted out as she lifted the heaviest box up the front stairwell of Mr. Amos’s residence. It was 6:50 in the morning, and she wanted to have everything moved into the house before 7, so time was ticking.

  “I can help, Mommy,” Daniel said from behind her, tugging on the bottom of her shirt to get her attention.

  Antonia leaned over after dropping the box down on the floor of the porch, gasping hard to try to get sufficient air in her lungs. It was time like these that she regretted being a smoker. “You okay, Mommy?” Daniel asked, grabbing her hand and squeezing hard like he was afraid she was about to slip away.

  “I’m fine, darling. I’m okay,” she said, breathing deeply a few more times before turning to walk back down the steps towards the car. “Mommy has to get these boxes in, okay? So just sit still for a few minutes and let me do this.”

  Over the next few minutes, she made quick work of the rest of their belongings. Their previous apartment had come fully furnished, so it really was just a few odds and ends, along with all of their clothes. She was just about to grab the biggest box again, preparing herself to carry it up the winding staircase in the entryway of Mr. Amos’s house so they could pick out a bedroom, when Mr. Amos appeared, tearing past them without even so much as a look.

  “Uh, good morning!” she called after him. He paused, turning back to look at her.

  “Oh, hey, um, here, catch,” he said, flinging his house keys towards her. Clearly he’d forgotten that she was coming at all. Antonia didn’t know whether to feel offended, or concerned that there was something wrong with the guy who’d hired her. “Food’s in the fridge, be home in, like, I don’t know, twelve hours. See you!” Mr. Amos took off into a run again, dashing to his driveway, where he hopped onto a motorcycle, then sped off down the road.

  “Okay…” Antonia said out loud, sighing a little apprehensively as she stared down at the clump of keys in her hand. There were at least a dozen keys on the keychain. She tried three or four for the door before she finally got the right fit, pushing open the huge front door to reveal Bobby standing there in his PJs.

  “Good morning,” Bobby said softly, yawning a little and waving at Daniel when he spotted him.

  “Good morning,” Antonia panted back, still not fully recovered from moving the boxes from her car. “Can you guys go sit on the couch for a minute while I deal with…all this?” She gestured to the pile of boxes and suitcases behind her on the porch. Bobby nodded and waved Daniel over to the couch, handing him his coloring book while they waite
d.

  It was another few minutes before Antonia had everything inside the house, and by then she was practically drenched in sweat, her tank top clinging to her chest. “Okay,” she said, more to herself than to either of the boys in the room. “Now to pick out a place to put this stuff…”

  “I have to go to the bathroom! Gotta pee!” Daniel suddenly announced.

  Oh, shit, Antonia thought, realizing that she had no idea where any of the bathrooms were. “Um….um…” she said out loud as she began marching down a hall, throwing open doors one by one looking for a toilet for her son, who only ever informed her of his need to urinate when his bladder was completely full. She didn’t have a whole lot of time to work with here, so after about thirty seconds of futile searching she started to resign herself to the idea that she was going to have to clean up her son’s pee within her first hour of her new job.

  “The potty is that way.” Bobby was pointing in the opposite direction, towards a nook hidden from sight behind the stairwell.