Playing the 'Son' Card (11 page)

I was almost ready to cry with
happiness that I would still be able to see the boys, and I might
just get to look after them again.

My tears were very near to coming as
I nodded my understanding. I managed to whisper, “Yes.”

Jack was very matter of fact, now.
“Right, I think that you and your mom still have some discussing to
do, so we’ll leave you two alone. Okay, the rest of you... let’s
go.”

In a moment, the door was closed,
and I turned back to face my mom. She was out of her chair, and
advancing on me. Instead of yelling or anything, though, she
grabbed me in a hug.

“I just could not stand to lose you,
Troy, and I don’t want anything back to happen to you. Please
promise me you’ll be careful, and not do dumb things.”

Now I was crying, freely, into her
shoulder, as she held me. I reciprocated the hug.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry I let
you down.”

She just held me for a moment before
she spoke again. After making sure I’d calmed down, she said,
“Look, Troy, I trust your judgment. After all, I’ve left you
totally on your own in a different city, for heavens sake. I know
you must have thought about it this morning, and you must have had
some good reasons for doing what you did. You were obviously
careful, and things worked out.”

She looked at me carefully as she
continued. “I just hope that you don’t have to make that kind of a
decision again. I’ve only got one Troy, and I want him around
forever, so be careful, okay?”

“Okay, Mom,” I sniffed. “I
will.”

“
I love you,” she said.

“I love you, too, Mom,” I
acknowledged.

She reached her hand up to my face
to wipe my tears. “Okay, then, let’s get you cleaned up, and
presentable again.”

She handed me a tissue, and I got
myself cleaned up and blew my nose.

Mom gestured at the paperwork on the
desk. “By the way, that was an exceptional bit of salesmanship this
morning. The sellers asked me to make sure to tell you just how
appreciative they are, and thanked me for making sure I had such a
good office behind them.”

“For the record, Troy, I’m very
proud of you.”

I smiled for the first time in an
hour. “Thanks, Mom.”

We went out to join the rest of the
group. As I looked around, I hoped that I’d be able to see a lot
more of them after I moved.

Mom had an idea that she shared with
us as she entered the kitchen where everyone was gathered, but she
said a word of explanation first.

“So, Troy and I have had our words,
and we’ll leave it at that for now. However, punishment aside,
there is still something positive that happened today. Normally,
when I make a sale, I like to do something to mark the occasion,
and this is no different in that respect. So, Sally and Jack, would
you be willing to let me take you all out to dinner?”

Sally glanced at Jack before
answering. “Well, yes, Liz, that would be nice, and after all, it
is still Easter Sunday.”

“I know just the place,” Jack added,
mentioning a name. “Okay if I phone to see if we can get
reservations?”

“Sure,” laughed Mom, “And
thanks.’

A couple of minutes later, Jack got
off the phone. “Okay, it’s done. They got us in at 5:00, a little
early, but that’s the only time they had left. So, boys, you have
ten minutes to get cleaned up and ready to go.”

“And put on some nice clothes,”
Sally admonished.

Trevor was all smiles. “Sure,
Mom.”

The three of us rushed from the
room, and headed upstairs to change and wash up.

In their room, I reached for my
jacket and tie again, prompting Trevor to ask a
question.

“Isn’t that a little too dressy,
Troy?”

“Well, maybe,” I admitted, “But it’s
either that or jeans. That’s all I have here right now.”

“Right,” Trevor said. “Got
it.”

We three were all downstairs within
the required time. Trevor and Jess had put on dress pants and nice
shirts, so they looked nice, too.

I was even more pleased to see that
Jack had put on a shirt and tie as well, so I felt like I’d made
the right decision.

With our Moms reappearing in nice
dresses, we were ready to go. It was a little crowded for us all to
take one vehicle, so I went with mom in her SUV.

We started driving in the direction
of the office, and the nearby restaurant. Mom glance over at
me.

“Any problems with the car this
morning, Troy, or with the computer and printer?”

As I answered her question and we
talked a bit about selling houses, it was almost as if she was
treating me as an equal, and it made me feel really good. I still
knew I’d done wrong, but at least my mom was still on my side, and
it appeared that Sally and Jack were, too.

I still had hopes for my new, good
life, and it would not get here soon enough.

CHAPTER

14

We had a nice dinner out on the
Sunday night. The one thing that I particularly took note of was my
mom’s comment to the server when he asked of this was a celebration
or something.

I suspect that was because my mother
had made a toast about a house sale that the adults had drank with
wine and us kids drank with water.

She had looked over at me, in answer
to the question, and said that he son had sold his first house. I
blushed a bit, and smiled, happy that I had made a positive
contribution to my mother’s business.

I was pretty tired when we got back,
so I went to bed at the same time as Trevor and Jesse.

In the morning, we got up around
eight after I convinced them to go back to sleep at least two
times. Later, in the kitchen, after breakfast, I asked Sally if I
could take the boys over to the pool in the afternoon.

“There’s a special swim for the
school holiday,” I explained, “From one until five. The boys did
pretty good the other day, and they might enjoy it again. And,” I
added, “We can take out bikes, because it’s a nice day.”

She looked at me, as if to judge my
sincerity and maturity or something. “Sure, Troy, okay. I’ll let
you do that.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I borrowed Uncle
Jack’s bike on Friday and Saturday, and I’ll ask him if I can
borrow it today.”

“Oh, goodness,” she responded. “That
old thing! You must have had to clean a pound of dirt and dust off
it. I’m surprised you actually got it running.”

I laughed a bit. “Well, I did have
to clean it off, and then I had to pump up the tires, and put a
little grease on the chain, but after that...”

She joined in with my laughter
herself. “You can ask him if you see him, but don’t worry about it.
I’ll just tell him that it’s now become your bike, and he can ask
you if we wants to use it in the future, which I
doubt...”

I went up to her and kissed her on
the cheek. “Thanks, Aunt Sally. You’re the greatest.”

“Well, look at you, Mr. Evanson,”
she exclaimed, a little surprised with my approach. “You are a fine
young man, and if anyone’s great around here, it’s you.”

She paused, and leaned forward to
kiss me on the cheek and put her arms around me. “I am very happy
that my boys have you in their lives.

I returned her hug, not saying
anything. For me to be told that I was still appreciated and could
still be a part of the lives of this family was the best thing I’d
heard since the previous night, and I almost lost it. My tears were
close again.

She must have sensed that I was
pretty emotional, and probably knew why. “Okay, Troy, now go,” she
ordered. “See what the boys are doing, and tell them about
swimming.”

She released me, and I turned and
left the room, still not trusting myself to say anything without
bursting into tears.

I deliberately waited a good ten
minutes before I went and looked for the boys. I found them playing
the video game we’d rented. I told them about swimming for the
afternoon, and they were all over me with excitement. We ended up
in an impromptu wrestling match for about fifteen minutes before I
called ‘uncle.’ They were ganging up on me and definitely getting
the upper hand.

They went back to playing, and I
watched them for a few minutes before I headed outside to check on
the bikes, and put a little more air in my front tire.

I found Jack outside, doing a little
work on the back fence. He was putting a supporting post in to help
an old fencepost that was starting to get rotten.

He greeted me in a very friendly
manner. I mentioned that I was going to be doing something similar
back home in Spokane in an effort to help sell the house
there.

He looked at me with a bit of new
respect, realizing again just how much I’d taken on back home,
looking after myself and getting the house ready for
sale.

“You’re really doing a lot, Troy,
for a lot of people, it seems,” he commented. “You sure have grown
up a lot in the last little while.”

“I suppose,” I mumbled, still unsure
of my standing with him.

He stopped what he was doing, and
looked at me. He put his hands gently on my upper arms. “You know,
Troy. Your dad would be really, really proud of you. And, you
should be proud of yourself.”

Jack was just getting warmed up.
“You’ve done amazing things, and speaking for myself, what I see
you doing for my sons is nothing short of astounding. I mean, you
were nice to them before, but all of a sudden it seems as if you’ve
become this amazing mentor to them, and they would follow you
anywhere.”

I was pleased to hear all this, but
I still had a feeling there was a little unsaid, and I suspected I
knew what it was.

“So you’re worried that they might
take after me if I do something illegal.” There. I’d said it. I’d
known that was a concern, and that was why I had not even
considered taking them with me, and why I had told them about how
scary it was and how I would not want to do it again.

Jack was looking into my face to see
how sincere I was.

“Yes, Mr. Evanson, you understand
perfectly. That, too, is a measure of your maturity, and another
reason your dad would be proud.”

I didn’t really like him to keep
referring to my dad, but he was the adult, and I could do nothing
with his kids without his approval.

His expression changed for the
better. “So, Evan, that’s the end of that conversation and our
discussion of that event. Thanks for being
understanding.”

“Okay,” I acknowledged.

I took a breath. “So, I was talking
to Aunt Sally a few minutes ago.”

I told him that I wanted to take the
kids to the pool and she thought it was okay. I also asked him
about his bike, not mentioning that Sally had given it to
me.

He told me that he was happy that it
was finally being used again, and apologized for not having it in
better order for me.

“I should have thought of that
before you came,” he said. “Thanks for looking after that
yourself.”

With that confrontation out of the
way, I left him to his own work, and headed back inside. My mother
had gone to the office, so I hung around with the boys until it was
lunch time.

I’d asked Sally if we could have an
early lunch, so we could get a head start over to the
pool.

After eating and getting ready, we
took off with a little time to spare. I wanted to go an extra five
minutes past the pool to the real estate building, and show the
boys my office, if it was not busy.

So, after we started out, I asked
them, “You guys want to take a little detour, and see my office
where my mom works?”

Jesse was enthused.
“Sure!”

“Yeah, okay.” Trevor
agreed.

“I’ll just warn you in advance that
if it’s busy, we won’t go in.” I said as we kept riding.

A few minutes later, we got to the
building, and we parked our bikes around the back, out of the way.
There was only one other car there besides my mom’s, so I thought
we’d be safe to go in.

At the front door, I had to use the
key that Melanie had given me. I pushed my marker to the ‘in’
position, just in case someone wanted to know who’d come in. Then I
led the boys down the corridor to my office.

As I hoped, they were a little in
awe at my space, and the name on my desk. I left them for a moment
while I went and got us each a soda. Then I sat down at my desk and
showed them how I had my own email account, and then even showed
them my stack of business cards.

I suppose in taking them in there
and showing off, I was showing a little bit less mature behavior,
but I’d never had any kids who really liked me before, much less
looked up to me, and it was nice to bask in their
approbation.

We finished our sodas, and I gave
them each a card to take. I put a few more in my pack, just in case
I needed them for something, although I could not imagine
what.