by Beth Ehemann
“Um…” She frowned at me and shook her head slightly, clearly confused about what I had asked.
“About after?”
Her eyes grew big. “Oh. That. No.” She laughed. “He was already so excited about the library that if I’d told him about the second part, I would’ve had to lock him in his room all morning.”
I turned my attention back to Matthew, who was staring a hole through me about two inches from my face.
“So, after the library today, how about we stop and get some lunch? I know this cool place that let’s you open peanuts and throw the shells on the floor.”
“No way!” Matthew whispered loudly, moving closer to my face, if that were even possible.
“You don’t think much of personal space, do you, buddy?”
He pulled back and crinkled his little nose up. “What’s that?”
“Never mind.” I laughed. “You ready to go? Let’s leave early so we can get a prime seat on that friendship rug.”
“What’s a prime seat?” he asked again.
Michelle covered her mouth with her hand and laughed quietly. “You’ll learn,” she joked as she shook her head and handed me Matthew’s backpack.
I threw the backpack over my shoulder and we were out the door.
A couple hours later, we’d read one book about a calf who’d wandered away from his farm and couldn’t find his way home, sang the longest version of “Old MacDonald” I’d ever heard, and done a dance where we all had to pretend to be a different animal. I wanted to be an elephant with a huge trunk, for obvious reasons, but Matthew told me I couldn’t since they don’t live on farms, so he made me be a duck.
Storytime ended and I buckled him into the backseat of my car.
“Where are we going again?” he asked in his squeaky little voice.
“There’s this restaurant I like called Cowboy Phil’s. When you sit down, they put a bowl of peanuts on the table and you get to eat them and throw the shells right on the floor.”
In the rearview mirror, I could see his little mouth drop open and his eyes grow huge. “Whoa!” he whispered.
“Yep, and they have an arcade there and all these cool animals that were alive a long time ago, but now they’re stuffed. It’s pretty awesome.”
Without saying another word, he folded his hands in his lap and looked out the window, smiling. Again with that damn smile.
The hostess led us to a table right in the middle of the restaurant and set our menus down, along with the peanuts. Matthew hadn’t even climbed onto his chair yet and he was already grabbing at the bowl.
“Hang on, hang on.” I laughed as I helped him into his seat.
The hostess smiled and walked away as I settled into my chair next to him.
Before we even picked up the menus to look at them, my phone beeped with a text alert.
It was from Michelle.
M: Hi. I know this is totally neurotic, but I’m not used to being away from him for this long. How’s it going?
I couldn’t help myself.
He’s great. We just picked up two hookers and we’re heading back to the hotel to smoke a couple of joints. Why didn’t you tell me he hated vodka? Rum it is!
I’m so dead.
I looked up at Matthew, who was furiously pounding peanuts with his fist like a hammer and throwing them on the floor without eating them first.
“You’re supposed to eat the peanut first, goofball.”
He looked up at me innocently and shrugged. “I don’t like peanuts.”
As I laughed at him again, my phone beeped.
M: You are SO not funny.
Instead of texting back, I leaned in close to Matthew. “Hey, take a selfie with me to send to your mom, okay?”
He nodded excitedly. “Should we duck face?”
“Really? You don’t know what personal space is, but you can make a duck face?” I rolled my eyes.
“Huh?”
“Never mind.” I pulled his little face against mine and we both smiled as I took the picture and sent it off to Michelle.
“So what do you want to eat?” I picked up the menu and scanned it.
“I want pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, and noodles,” he answered without looking up at me from his busy peanut-crushing session.
“They don’t have noodles and I’m not ordering you a whole pizza, so how about chicken nuggets?”
He shrugged. “Sounds good.”
My phone beeped again.
M: Look at that happy face!
His or mine?
The waitress finally came over and took our order. Matthew’s face lit up when I suggested we check out the arcade while we wait for the food. On the way to the arcade, I stopped at the bar and traded a twenty-dollar bill for two rolls of quarters. One for Matthew. One for me.
It didn’t take long for us to become fully engrossed in the games. I was well on my way to setting a new record on the Elvis Presley pinball machine, while Matthew was a few machines down, spinning the steering wheel on a racing game.
I heard a couple kids come into the room but was too engrossed in what I was doing to pay much attention.
Within a minute or so, Matthew yelled out. “Hey!”
My head snapped toward the right to see Matthew standing next to the game he was just on with his hands on his hips, frowning at one of what I thought were boys but were more like teenagers, now sitting in his seat. “That was mine. I was here first.”
The little fucker didn’t even look up; he just scoffed. “Sorry, kid. This is my game. I play it all the time when I’m here and I’m here, so I’m playing it.”
I walked up behind the bratty punk and placed my hands on the seat, right behind his shoulders, as his friends took a few steps back. “I’m sorry, did you not hear him? He was here first.”
“Did you not hear me?” he spit back without looking up. “I said I wanted to play it, so I’m gonna play it.”
“Okay.” I tapped his shoulder. “Here’s the deal—if we’re in the business of doing what we want to do when we want to do it, whether it’s right or wrong, I’m in the mood to beat the shit out of some snot-nosed, pimple-faced teenage shit-for-brains who likes to pick on little kids. The only one I see in this room is you, so could you stand up, please?”
He let go of the steering wheel and jumped off the seat in one swift motion, turning to face me but not expecting to be looking at my chest. His eyes slowly drifted up to mine as his mouth fell open.
“I’m guessing mine are the only tits you’ve ever seen, son.”
“Listen, I’m sorry.” He held his hands up and backed away. “I didn’t mean to be mean to your kid.”
“So what? You were accidentally mean to him? Don’t give me that shit. You had no problem being a little prick until you saw that I could crush you with my pinkie. Now get the hell out of here before I actually do it.”
He turned and started toward the door when I called out to him.
“Hey! I believe you owe this young man a dollar.”
“Yes. Yes, sir.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and pulled out a five-dollar bill. “This is all I have.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, flexing just a little bit. “And your point is?”
“Here. Sorry, kid.” He shoved the money into Matthew’s hand and quickly bolted for the door.
Matthew looked up at me and his chin trembled.
“Hey, hey… it’s okay.” I knelt down in front of him and put my hands on his shoulders, looking him straight in the eyes. “You did good, Matthew. Always do that, okay? If anyone picks on you, you defend yourself. Don’t let them treat you like that, okay?”
He stared down at the ground and swallowed, and I couldn’t help the urge I had to hug that kid. I thought I might explode if I didn’t, but I didn’t want to freak him out.
“Matthew, is it okay if I hug you?”
The words were barely out of my mouth when he threw himself into my chest and squeezed. I cupped his little hea
d in my hands and pulled him even tighter against me.
It was my job on the ice to protect my teammates, but other than them and Gam, there weren’t too many other people I cared about in the world, let alone felt the need to protect—until that moment.
“HEY!” MICHELLE SPUN around in the kitchen as she heard us come through the door.
“I hope it’s okay that I didn’t knock. It was open.” I pointed back toward the front of the house.
“No problem at all.” She waved a dish towel toward me and then flipped it over her shoulder. “How did it go? How was storytime?”
Matthew tucked his hands under his armpits and flapped his wings as he walked around the kitchen. “It was awesome. Viper danced like a duck!”
“Viper danced?” She turned her head toward me slowly, a playful gleam in her eyes.
“Viper did.” I nodded proudly. “I figured if he was willing to do it, why the heck shouldn’t I?”
She laughed. “I’m impressed. What else happened?”
Matthew stood up from his duck position and put his hands on his hips. “There were big boys in the arcade who were mean.”
She pulled her brows in tight, looking from Matthew to me. “What’s he talking about?”
“That big boy took the game I was playing,” Matthew continued, “but Viper pulled him out of the seat and told him to give me money.”
Michelle’s eyes were full of panic as they flashed from Matthew’s over to mine. “What is he talking about?”
I held my hands out in front of me. “Wait, I promise it’s not as bad as it sounds. Let me explain.”
She cocked her hip to the side and crossed her arms, staring me square in the face. Quite intimidating, actually.
“So we went to storytime and danced like ducks, then I took him to Cowboy Phil’s, that place I told you about?” I paused so she could add something, an mmhmm, a yep, a nod of the head, anything to let me know she didn’t want to rip my face off right then.
Crickets.
“Anyway, we ordered our food, and while we were waiting for it to get there, we went to the arcade to donate some quarters to the place. I was playing pinball and he was playing a driving game. Before I knew it, some punk-ass teenagers took his game, so… I very politely asked them to get up and give Matthew his game back. At first, the kid wasn’t exactly willing, but once he stood up and turned around, he changed his tune very quickly.”
Chewing on her bottom lip, she narrowed her eyes and shifted them over to Matthew and back to me again. “What was he talking about when he said they paid him?”
“Oh. That.” I shrugged. “Well, as he was rushing out of the room, I reminded them that they owed the young man money.”
Matthew reached into his pocket and pulled the money out, proudly showing it off to his mom. “I got five bucks, Mom!”
“The game was five dollars? What kind of an arcade was this?” she asked.
“Well, no. The game was one dollar, but all he had was a five, so we’ll just consider the other four punitive damages.” I grinned at her.
“And Mom, Viper only said ‘tit’ one time, so don’t be mad,” Matthew added.
Michelle glared at me and inhaled deeply as her nostrils flared like an angry bull’s.
“I swear it made sense during my bully beatdown,” I defended.
She slapped her hand over her eyes and shook her head just as I reached over and high-fived Matthew and Maura started making noise through the monitor.
Michelle looked up at Matthew and winked. “Someone must have sensed her big brother was home and now she wants to get up to play.” She kissed the top of Matthew’s head and started out of the kitchen. “Be right back.”
I wandered into the family room and sat down on the couch. Before I could call him over, Matthew was already sitting next to me, leaning into my side. I draped my arm over him and squeezed harder.
We sat through almost an entire episode of that annoying talking sponge again, and I pulled out my phone to look at the time. I glanced down at Matthew, who was half asleep on my arm, his eyes completely glazed over. I carefully lifted his head and slid out from under him, laying him gently on a pillow. I headed toward the front of the house but felt guilty leaving without saying good-bye, so I took a deep breath and quietly climbed up the stairs.
I’d only been upstairs in Mike’s house a handful of times. Whenever I’d been there, we’d mostly hung out in the family room or down in the man cave in the basement, so I had no idea where I was going. Once I got to the top, I heard singing and followed it to the left. The first door I came to was about halfway closed, but the singing was definitely coming from there, so I stopped to listen, leaning in close.
It was Michelle.
She was singing “Hush Little Baby,” I assumed to Maura, in the most beautiful voice I’d ever heard in my life. I stood there with my eyes closed, listening to the calming sound that was coming out of her. When she got to the last verse, I decided to sneak back downstairs and just wait to say bye, but when I went to take a step, the wood floor creaked under my feet. I cringed and a second later, the bedroom door opened.
“Hey.” She smiled at me as she carried Maura on her hip.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Matthew fell asleep downstairs, and I didn’t want to sneak out without saying good-bye, so I thought I’d come find you, but then I heard you singing, and I didn’t want to bug you…” I rambled incoherently.
“Viper!” she interrupted. “It’s okay. I was just about done anyway. Lately, it’s been hard for me to find time alone with her. Matthew gets my undivided attention when she’s napping, and the couple times you’ve gone to the library, she’s been napping, so I just wanted to steal a few minutes with her. Sorry it took so long.” She reached out and wiped drool off Maura’s chin.
“No way, please don’t apologize. It was nice. I didn’t know you could sing like that.”
“Oh, thanks.” Her cheeks flushed and she bit her lip, trying to hide her smile. “I can’t cook to save my life, so thank goodness there’s one good thing she’ll remember from her childhood, right?”
After a brief, awkward shift right there in that hallway, I cleared my throat. “Anyway, he’s out and I’m sure you have things to do this evening, so I’m gonna take off.”
“Do you have plans tonight?” she asked as she followed me down the stairs.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Then you can’t go.”
Once we got to the bottom of the steps, I turned back to face her. “Huh?”
“You bought my son lunch and saved him from the arcade antagonizers. Throwing a piece of pizza on a paper plate for you is the least I can do.”
“You don’t have to buy me dinner.” I laughed.
“Fine.” She turned and started toward the kitchen. “In that case, stay right there while I get you money for today.”
“You’re not paying me,” I called to her sternly.
She stopped in the kitchen doorway and spun back around, balancing Maura on her hip as she raised a defiant eyebrow at me. “Fine again. Sausage or pepperoni?”
Since Matthew and I had just eaten lunch an hour before, once he woke up from his short catnap, we passed the time until dinner building Legos together.
“Sit down with me.” He tugged on my shirt as I walked through the family room.
“Hey, look!” I pointed down at him. “You’re sitting criss cross applesauce. I will too.”
I heard Michelle chuckle from the kitchen as she loaded the dishwasher.
A huge bin of Legos, a million different shapes and sizes, sat next to Matthew. “What are we building?” I asked him.
“A fire station.” He was looking down at his project. The harder he concentrated, the bigger his frown grew.
“Do you want me to help?” I wasn’t sure what to do. Lego creations were sacred to some kids.
He sat up excitedly. “Can you make a fire truck to go in my fire house?”
We sat in silence, working diligently on our respective projects for what felt like hours without saying a word, just concentrating. After a while, I heard Michelle chuckling, so I looked up. She was standing behind the couch with her arms folded, smiling at us with her head tilted to the side.
I glanced down at Matthew and back up at her, lost as to what she’d laughed at. “What?”
“Have you ever seen the movie Forrest Gump?” she asked.
Random.
“Yeah, a long time ago.”
“There’s that scene at the very end of the movie where big Forrest goes in to watch TV with little Forrest and Jenny is watching them from behind. She smiles to herself because they look the same and sit the exact same way. You two just reminded me of that.”
I hadn’t even noticed that Matthew and I were sitting the exact same way with our legs out to the side and our pile of Legos in the middle between us.
“Wasn’t Jenny cooking those hard-working men dinner during that scene?” I teased, grinning up at her as I connected two tiny red Legos.
“I told you I don’t cook. I can make spaghetti and French toast. That’s about it.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Scrambled eggs?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
“Meatloaf?”
“Nope.”
“Chili?”
“Nope.”
“Burgers?”
“I don’t even know how to use the grill.” She laughed. “Why do you think I ordered pizza?”
Matthew, without looking up from his Legos, exclaimed, “I love pizza!”
“Thank God for that, buddy.” I reached over and messed up his hair.
“Oh, whatever. You’re telling me you can cook?” Michelle walked around to the front of the couch and sat down, pulling her legs up under her.
“Actually, yes,” I said matter-of-factly as I set the Legos down and turned toward her. “I really like cooking, but I never do it because it’s just me. Not worth the mess.”
She pulled her bottom lip in and nodded. “Impressive. What can you make?”