Balderdash: Disencumber

“I love you so much.”

“You’re gonna be good for daddy, right?”

“Of course, mommy! Uncle Antoine says to always leave a place in a position you can come back to.”

“That’s right. So, that means you’re going to listen to daddy just like you do me and Uncle Antoine, right?”

“Because if daddy tells me you tricked him into staying up all night or having ice cream for dinner, you know what’s going to happen when you get back, right?”

*Antoine shrieking* “Ok! Ok! Stooooop!”

“And what if I don’t? What are you going to do?”

As cute as this exchange is to watch, I only have one night with him, and I don’t want to waste it standing out here watching their banter. I know it’s hard, and I don’t want to seem insensitive, but… “Ready to go, lil man?”

“Yeah!”

Her hair is covering her face, but I know she doesn’t look happy. I want to say something to her to make her more comfortable with this, but what can I say? I messed everything up, and now I have to deal with the fallout. I wish she would just look at me. Maybe an encouraging smile would help. I know little man is torn. He wants to come with me, but he knows he can’t leave his mama like this.

Oh good…Uncle Antoine to the rescue.

“Hey what’s happenin, Zee.”

“Sup, Toine.”

She still won’t look at me.

“So, little nephew… You’re going on your first sleepover, huh? You gonna stay up all night?”

“Yeah.”

That’s funny, but I can’t have his mother thinking I’m gonna let him stay up all night. “Heh, well…not all night, of course.”

Finally. She looked at me. It’s getting pretty dark out here, but I can still see those bright green eyes of hers from all the way over here. I remember the first time I saw those eyes. I was done. And she stuck a fork in me too. I didn’t even know her name, but I knew I wanted her to be mine. This whole thing is strange. We never exactly broke up. I just kept putting distance between us. Does that mean she’s still mine?

I feel like I can hear her thoughts through her eyes. She looks like she’s saying, ‘please take care of my baby!’ To that, I would say, ‘uhhhh, he’s my son too! What do you think I’m gonna do? Put him in front of the TV and go to bed? Give me a break, woman.’ I can’t tell her that. Instead, I’ll return a warm smile and encouraging nod.