Playing the 'Son' Card (12 page)

On the way out, I decided to see if
my mom was busy, and she wasn’t.

I stood at her open door. “Hi,
Mom.”

She looked up. “Troy!
Hi.”

“We’re just passing through, Mom.
We’re going to the pool, and I wanted to show Trevor and Jesse my
office.”

She gave me a smile. “Well come on
in, boys. Welcome.”

Trevor and Jesse kind of slid into
the room, not wanting to be a bother.

Trevor greeted her. “Hi, Aunt
Liz.”

Now she showed that she was my
mother first, and the head of the office second. She got out of her
chair, and came over to give all of us a hug. “I’m glad you stopped
by, guys. It’s great to see you.”

I signaled that it was time to go.
“Okay, Mom. We’ll see you later. By the way, will we see you for
supper?”

“Sure will. I’ll see you
later.”

I was just about out the door when
she stopped me. “By the way, Troy, what time does your bus leave to
got back tomorrow?”

I’d been thinking about
this.

“Well, Mom, I was thinking I’d see
if I could go back by plane. I was checking out flights, and I can
leave here mid-afternoon tomorrow and get into Spokane by just
after seven. That’s a whole lot fast than by bus. For that, I’d
have to leave before noon, and I’d bet into Spokane well after
midnight.”

She was thoughtful for just a
moment. “Hmm. That sounds like a good idea, Troy. We should have
done that before, too.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “But that was
before I sold a house, and got a little extra income for the
family.”

I hurried on to show my
understanding of how it works. “Oh, I know we don’t get anything
until closing, but at least we think there’s a good chance the deal
with go through, right.”

“Absolutely right, Troy. There’s a
very good chance the deal will go through.”

I returned her smile. “Okay, Mom.
See you later.”

The boys were already ahead of me,
and Trevor even was pushing me tab back to ‘out’ as I reached the
reception desk.

“Okay, lets go swim,” I
said.

We headed over to the pool, and had
a great afternoon. Towards the end of the swim, it got really
quiet, so we spent the last hour on the diving boards, working on
our skills. I didn’t let either of them try anything new, but I let
them do lots of lead-up skills, and gave them lots of feedback
about positioning, just as Jonathan had.

We were pretty tired, but happy, as
we made our way home. Sally pointed out that it was a school night,
so it was regular bedtime. After just a little complaining, the
boys went to bed really well, and I promised that I’d be up soon
myself.

With the boys gone upstairs, Mom
asked if I’d join her, Sally and Jack in the living room, to ‘catch
up on things.’

She pointed out that we had not even
looked at houses while I had been there, and suggested there might
be an alternative. At this point, Sally spoke up, and said that
they really felt like both Mom and I were part of the family, and
perhaps it might keep the family together if we all stayed
together.

I felt three pairs of adult eyes on
me. After a moment to consider, I voiced my opinion that it might
be okay.

“It’s not like I don’t like you all,
or anything,” I observed, “But it’s just that we are a little
cramped here. I mean, we’ve even got Jesse sleeping on the
floor.”

“That’s quite true, Troy, and we
were thinking that if you did this, we’d turn the unfinished part
of the basement into a very large bedroom for you three. We’d fix
up their old room for your mom, and we’d have our guest room back.
We’d also put a new bathroom downstairs, so that would help that
situation out.”

I thought for a moment about how
nice it would be to be part of this family. If the boys kept up
being so nice to me, it would be a wonderful setup.

I looked at mom, who was looking at
me with a hopeful expression. I was a little surprised that she had
not mentioned it first to my privately, but then I realized that
for all her success at work, she still needed the support from her
good friends for many things.

It was time to say yes. “Well, sure.
It sounds as if you’ve thought it all out, Uncle Jack. It could be
really nice to all be part of this big family.”

Mom got up to give me a hug, and in
a moment I was surrounded by all three adults congratulating
me.

After a bit more time, I headed off
to bed. It had been long day, with some momentous news and plans
revealed.

The next morning, I was awakened
early by Jesse. He was jumping on me, clearly excited and
happy.

“You’re going to live with us, and
we all get a new room in the basement.” He repeated his little
sentence over and over until Trevor complained.

“Okay, Jesse, we hear you. Yes I
agree that it’s great, but you can stop saying it over and over.”
Trevor smiled as he spoke, to show he was not mad or
anything.

“I take it you two think it’s a good
idea, then?” I was sure of the answer.

A chorus of yes’ from Jesse and a
solid, “Absolutely,” from Trevor.

We talked a bit about when I’d
arrive to move in, and Jesse complained that was too long. I
reminded them that the basement needed to get finished and ready,
so the timing was about right.

I saw them off to school, and then
packed myself up. I was going to go to the office with Mom, and
then go to the airport from there. Sally gave me an extra hug, and
told me to be careful and that she’d see me soon. Jack shook my
hand, and then gave me a hug, and then Mom and I were
off.

I was wearing a jacket and tie for
the office and for my later travel. I thought it might forestall
any questions about my age at the airport.

I attended the regular Tuesday
morning weekly agent’s meeting, where I was introduced, and I was
given a couple of minutes to speak about my sale. I followed two
others, so I knew what to say. I spoke about the things that I
thought had made the difference and getting the sale, along with
the problems and how I’d overcome them.

I also mentioned that I’d used a
computer link to print the offer right at the showing, and that I
thought it had made something of a difference. I almost made it
sound like I’d set up the laptop and printer inside the house, to
forestall any thoughts they might have had about me and a
car.

When I was finished, I sat down, and
even got a little applause. My mom remarked that she didn’t think
she’d ever heard of anyone getting a sale only three days after
first entering an office and I heard some agreement.

I had about an hour back in my own
office before I left. As I sat at my desk, I thought about trying
to just stay on, and not go back home. I looking at my name on the
open door, I considered the pros and cons. If I stayed, my new life
would stay, but I would be letting my Mom down by not getting our
old place ready for sale.

If I stayed, I might have trouble
transferring schools, and I would almost certainly not be able to
finish school two weeks early in June.

No, it was better to go back, I
decided. It wasn’t too long, and I could tough it out. With that
idea firmly embraced, I felt a little better.

I had lunch with Mom, and then left
to go over to the airport. I had no trouble with anything. They
didn’t question my age when I checked in for the flight, and I had
no other problems. I didn’t move when they called for early
boarding for those with children. I figured I was not a child
anymore.

I made the transfer just fine at
SeaTac Airport, and arrived in Spokane as planned, where I got a
taxi to go home.

What was soon to be ‘our old place’
was strangely quiet after the house in Bellingham. I walked through
to the kitchen and put my pack down on the table, looking around as
if to see if anything had changed since I had left a few days
before.

Nothing in the house was different,
of course, but I was. I’d had an amazing time, and the fact was
that I had a new life was waiting for me. As much as I knew things
would go back to the way they had been for the next little while in
Spokane, I had the promise of better days ahead, and that would
make all the difference.

I set about getting something to
eat, and planning for the next day. It was back to school, and only
three months to go in my old life. I was sure I could make
it.

CHAPTER

15

I was now back home in Spokane, and
not looking forward to my last few months there. Still, I had to
get through the rest of the school year, and this was the best way
to do it. I also had to get the house sold.

At first, when I got back,
everything went back to the way it was. I wanted to be the new
person I’d become in Bellingham, but I was still known as the loner
kid. As had been the case all through middle school, no one wanted
to be friendly with me, and the bullying continued as it had
before. The only time anyone spoke to me, it was to give me a bad
time. In fact, usually they didn’t talk to me, but they talked
about me while making sure I was close enough to hear.

I stayed away from all other kids as
much as I could. I endured taunts and teasing from the other boys
when I got near them, and I generally felt like the outsider and
little boy that I’d been when I left before the long
weekend.

I got a break two weeks after I got
back. In a partial repeat of my recent plane trip, I headed to
Seattle to the first weekend of the dive coaching course. It was at
the University of Washington aquatic facility, and I was certainly
the youngest there.

I was extraordinarily self-conscious
and nervous, but it was not long before I discovered that my skills
were well ahead of at least half of those there, and that gave me a
lot of credibility and allowed me to make friends with some of the
older kids.

I soon discovered that only two of
the others were even high school kids, and all of the others were
college age or older.

One of the high school kids was from
Spokane, and the school I would have been going to if I didn’t
move. His name was Elliot, and I ended up getting along quite well
with him.

Of course, we got to talking quite a
bit. I was a little better diver than him, but not by
much.

We flew home on the same plane, and
by the time arrived, he even got his mother to give me a ride home.
After all, we live in the same neighborhood.

By the time we parted company, he
convinced me to come around to the pool, and do some diving with
his club during the three weeks prior to the next half of the
coaching course.

It was the same pool that my dad had
taken me to, and I was more than a little uncertain, but agreed to
meet him the next night.

Imagine my surprise when two of the
kids in the diving club were from my class at school. They were
about ready to start in on their teasing when my new high school
friend showed up. The two boys from my class stayed
quiet.

Then, it got even better. As their
coach ran them through their warm up activities and lead-up skills,
I discovered that the two kids from my class were no where near as
good as I was.

The coach introduced me as a guest
‘assistant coach’ and asked my new friend and I if we wanted to
demonstrate any new skills that we’d learned, or in my case, if I
wanted to do a little demonstration of what skills I
knew.

So, armed with that instruction, and
a chance to show off to the kids from my class, I proceeded to do
my somersaults, which was as much as they knew, and then on to my
inward dive, and finally to my reverse dive and reverse somersault
along with twisting somersaults.

As I climbed out and got praise for
my reverse somersault, I couldn’t resist a glance at the kids from
my class, and was rewarded with the sight of them in something
approaching shock that I was this good athlete and excellent
diver.

I had no idea if it would make a
difference at school or not, but I was happy to have given them
something to look at.

I enjoyed Elliot’s company again,
and as we sat in the whirlpool at the end of the class he made a
point of asking how I’d made my way to the pool.

“I just rode my bike,” I
responded.

“Well, look,” he said, “Usually, I
get to bring my Mom’s car. Tonight, my sister Stacy needed the car,
but she still gave me a ride and she’ll pick me up. So from now on,
I can pick you up, if you want.”

I would have said yes, even if the
two kids from my class at school weren’t with me, but having them
there made it even better.

“Sure, Elliot,” I agreed. “That
would be great. Thanks.”

“Good,” he affirmed.

By the end of the next school day,
it was quite apparent that the word was out about my diving skills,
and there was some effect, too.

The teasing quickly tapered off, and
while I could not say that I was suddenly popular, I had been
elevated to the status of a person, and not a thing or object to be
derided.