“Mommy, can we go
home now?”
May Lyn scooped up
her tired little man and gave him a hug. “Not just yet, Honey. The game’s only
half over and don’t you want to find Mr. Sebastian first? Stevie said he was
going to be here with Cindy and…”
“Der he is!” Tristan
suddenly shouted, squirming out of his mother’s arm. “Mr. Bashan!” He hit the
ground running, sprinted forward and got instantly swallowed by the milling
crowd.
“Tristan!” May
shouted. In panic mode she ran after him, but the crowd closed around her and
she couldn’t see him anywhere. She was trapped in a sea of people all pushing
her further away from her baby.
“Oh, dear God!
Tristan!” she shouted breaking free at last.
Ten terrifying
minutes later—might as well have been three hours to a scared-to-death-of-losing-her-child mother—she spotted Cindy with
Stevie in a small group of friends standing underneath the grandstand, but no
Tristan nor Donny were in sight.
She ran forward and
grabbed Stevie’s arm. “What the heck? Aunt May, what’s wrong?” he said.
“Tristan, I lost
him in the crowd. Help me find him, please!” she said.
“He’s right over
there by the port-a-potties, Ms. London. My dad took him there and they went
looking for you,” Cindy said.
“Oh…oh…” May Lyn
said, clutching at her frantically beating heart. “Thank God.”
“You can thank my
dad,” Cindy giggled, and went back to talking to her friends.
May Lyn went to the
row of potties set behind the concession stand, but didn’t see her boy nor
Donny. “Where would they go to look for me?” she mumbled to herself, scanning
over the crowd. Her eyes fell on a familiar yet unwelcome face, that of Steven,
her brother-in-law, and not surprising—at least not to her—he was with a, shall
we say, young woman clearly half his
age and dressed particularly inappropriately. May Lyn swiftly turned away, lest
he were to spot her and ruin her night. That’s when she heard the shout she’d
hoped for.
“Mommy!” Tristan
said coming forward, hand in hand with Donny, “I found Mr. Bashan.”
“Oh, you little
monster!” she said, grabbing him up and half hugging, half strangling him. “You
scared me near to death, Tristan. Don’t you ever run off into a crowd like that
ever again! I thought I lost you forever.”
“Mr. Bashan just
tol me da same ting,” he said, struggling to get loose. “He said it was bery
bad, so I won’t do it no more. I pwomise!”
She released him
and stared at Donny. “Seems I’m forever thanking you for something having to do
with this little menace, Donny. I was ready to call in the National Guard in
order to find him.”
“I’ve been known to
call in the Marines for such a task,” Donny laughed. “My wife used to lose a
kid in the crowd at least once a year. Swore it took a year off her life each
time…least that’s what she said. Must have been right, cuz I lost her way too
soon.”
She nodded and
smiled somewhat sadly. She understood perfectly. They stared at each other with
nothing much to say, or perhaps too much which they didn’t know how to say.
“Can we get da ice
cream now, Mr. Bashan?” Tristan said, tugging on his hand and effectively breaking
the awkward silence.
“Only if it’s okay
with Mommy. That’s why we were looking for her first, you know. She’s the food
police. She can nix the whole idea,” Donny said, a mischievous grin on his
face.
“Oh sure, and be
the bad guy forever? I don’t think so!” she retorted. “I want a yogurt pop.”
Donny laughed.
Grabbed her arm and took them both to the end of the long line at the
concession stand.
“So, how do you
like being back in high school?” Donny asked, as they waited behind some
teenagers who were scrounging for enough money to get some fries and a drink to
split.
“Brings back
memories all right, not all bad though,” she said, tentatively looking over his
shoulder, wondering if Steven and his trampy girlfriend were still around and
hoping not to see him again.
“Looking for
someone?” Donny asked.
“Me? No,” she lied.
“Did you go to school around here?”
He shook his head
and told her far more than he imagined she’d ever want to know about him, but
as she kept asking questions and laughing at his stupid jokes, he kept going
until they were ready to order.
“You are so smart
to get it in a cup for him. He doesn’t do well with cones,” May Lyn said in a
whisper. “But you can’t tell him that or he’ll get all miffed.”
“Yes, I learned
that the hard way with my car upholstery,” he replied.
“Oh, Donny! I’m
sorry,” she grimaced.
“Lucky it didn’t
stain, so no worries,” he said. “Want to go sit down with us and watch the rest
of the game? Although…” He paused to scan the crowd of teenagers. “Not likely
I’ll find Cindy and Stevie now, is it?”
“I saw them with
some friends so…no!” she said laughing. “Think we’re on our own now.”
“I worry about
Cindy though,” he said, still looking for her in vain. “She’s had some trouble
with so-called friends.”
“High school can be
brutal, but she’s with Stevie. She’ll be fine if she stays with him. I’m pretty
sure he’d protect her with his life if need be. He won’t let her out of his
sight.”
“You giving that
kid too much credit just because he’s your nephew or…”
“He likes her, a
lot,” she said, without thinking.
“Just as friends,
right?” Donny asked frowning slightly as they climbed the bleachers, he holding
Tristan’s ice cream for him, while he climbed up. When May Lyn didn’t answer,
he stopped her from going further. “Right, May?”
She smiled and
said, “This is good here. We can see the slaughter great from here. Our school
is being killed, which is really weird for me. Our school almost always won
against…”
“Are you telling me
Stevie has a thing for my daughter and he’s got her here alone where I can’t
even watch out for her?” Donny said, sounding about as panicked as May Lyn had
been when she lost Tristan.
“Donny, sit and
chill. It’s just puppy love, I’m sure,” she said, putting Tristan on the bench
between them with his ice cream.
“I have to go find
her,” Donny said, turning around, jumping off the bleachers and leaving them
far behind.
“Donny!” she
shouted but he was gone.
“Where’s Mr. Bashan
going, Mommy?” Tristan asked. “He said he was gonna sit wiff us.”
May Lyn sighed.
“Come on, then. We better go after him or we’ll never find him again…least not
before he kills Stevie.”
When she finally
found him—took a few minutes as the game was about to start again and everybody
headed back to their seats—he was not with Cindy nor was he yelling at Stevie.
Donny, however, was having a heated discussion with Steven London, his little
tramp right beside him—making crackling sounds with her bubble gum and looking,
if at all possible, even more trampy than before.
May Lyn groaned.
“What’s this now?” she mumbled, stuffing the rest of her frozen yogurt pop into
her mouth and tugged Tristan along.
“There you are, May!
Been looking for you. I saw you walk off with this guy, but he wouldn’t tell
me where you were,” Steven said. “This bozo seems to think he owns you!”
“Does he now? Sounds
good to me,” she said, winking at Donny. The stunned look on his face was
precious. Not so much so the sneer on Steven’s, however. “And what is it you
wanted with me, Steven? Were you going to introduce me to your little sister?”
“Now, don’t be that
way, May,” Steven said.
The tramp giggled
and said, “That rhymes…way…may…”
May Lyn could
barely suppress her laughter. “Wow, you’re pretty sharp, Missy. Most people
would have missed that.”
“My name’s not
Missy. It’s Cherry…rhymes with berry.”
“Oh, you just get
better and better, don’t you?” May Lyn said, and turning to Donny she added,
“Don’t you think so, Donny honey? Oh, my, I think that rhymes too, doesn’t it?
We’re practically all poets here today.”
Donny suppressed a
laugh and might have replied, but just then Tristan tugged on his hand and
said, “I’m tired, Mr. Bashan. Can we go home?”
“Oh, sure, Buddy,
real soon,” Donny said and he crouched down to Tristan level wiping his mouth
with a napkin and tossing away the empty ice cream cup into a nearby garbage
can, he picked him up. “May, you stay and chat with your friends and I’ll take Tristan with me
and go look for my kid, okay?” Donny said.
“No, Donny, I’ll go with you,”
May Lyn said. “It was nice meeting you Cherry-berry. See ya sometime, Steven.”
“Tomorrow, May. The
gala is tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at…”
“Oh, sorry. Didn’t
I tell you I can’t find a babysitter for Tristan?” she said, not
even trying to look sorry.
“Who?”
“Tristan, your
brother’s son,” May Lyn said, rolling her eyes at Donny giving him a what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-this-dude
look.
“Right, sorry. What
about him?” Steven said, pointing at Donny.
“He’ll be going to
the gala,” May replied.
Steven glared at
him. “Then…” He turned to look at his girlfriend and said, “Cherry will stay
with him. You’ll do me the favor, won’t you, Cherry?”
She blinked at him
then looked at Donny. “Why does he need a babysitter? He’s older than I am.”
This was too much. May
Lyn and Donny burst out laughing.
“The kid, Cherry.
Babysit the kid!” Steven said through clenched teeth.
“I don’t wanna
babysit. I wanna go to the party,” Cheery whined. “You promised you’d take me
somewhere we can dance. Remember you said you would when we were in the office
and I did that thing you like so much?”
May Lyn rolled her
eyes and turned to go. “Bye, guys,” she
said, but she didn’t get very far.
Steven grabbed her
arm. “May, where you going? Hey, don’t be that way. Come on, let’s talk alone
for a minute.”
“But you see, I
don’t wanna!” May Lyn said, doing a rather good imitation of Cherry-berry while
pulling her arm free.
“May, it’s not what
it sounds like. She just works in the office. She means nothing.”
“You really are a
bastard, Steven,” May Lyn snapped. “She’s got feelings regardless how little she
may mean to you.”
“I…I didn’t mean it
that way. I mean compared to you,” he said, in his always winning charming
voice.
“We’ve played this
scene before, but you got it all wrong. I don’t care this time around. You see, you mean
nothing to me, and you haven’t ever since you disowned Chad as your brother and
although Chad isn’t here this time to save me from you, I’m all grown up now and
can take care of myself,” she said smiling. “Do yourself and me and even
Cherry-berry a huge favor and take her to the gala instead, or the movies or
her prom. I don’t care. I’m staying home tomorrow with Tristan, my son, Chad’s
son and your would-be nephew who you can’t for your life remember he exists. Goodbye,
Steven. Have a great life. I know I will.”
When she turned she
didn’t at first see Donny, but when she did she was thrilled to see him holding
a now sleeping Tristan against his shoulder, and he was still waiting for her. She laughed,
ran to him, grabbed a handful of his shirt and kissing him full on the lips.
When she pulled
away, she smiled still clutching his shirt. “Always wanted to do that,” she
mumbled.
“Me too,” he said
and he grabbed her around the waist, pulled her close and kissed her again.
Tristan, though
sound asleep, squirmed against the two adults. In truth he was being squashed a
little between them, but no one seemed too concerned and he slept on.
“We should get this
little guy home,” Donny said, gently rubbing Tristan’s back.
“I guess,” she said
sadly. She held out her hands as if to take the boy from him, but he shook his
head. “Are you stealing my child?”
“Maybe,” he said,
smirking. “Possession is nine tenths of the law, you know.”
“Which means what?”
she asked.
“I’ll tell you
after you answer me this. Will you go to the prom with me?”
She giggled. “The
prom?”
He grimaced. “Smooth,
Donny,” he muttered to himself. “I mean the gala. All these kids, football,
cheerleaders, old boyfriends, petty backstabbing… guess I went a couple of decades back
in time. Feels too much like high school.”
She laughed. “Yes,
it does and I’d love to go to the prom or gala or whatever with you, Donny.”
“Even if we can’t
get a babysitter for Tristan?”
She leaned closer
and whispered, “I have a confession to make. I lied to Steven about not getting
a sitter.”
“I see,” he said,
staring into her lovely blue eyes. “Then I guess it’s a date.”
They were
practically nose to nose and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again even
though they were in the middle of a noisy crowd. “Have I ever told you I like
it when you wear heels? You’re just the right height for kissing.”
She smiled, leaned
forward and just touched his lips with hers. “You mean like that?”
“Yeah, just like
that,” he whispered against her lips before kissing her again.
“I may never wear
sneakers again,” May Lyn said.
“Good!” Donny said.
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