Nine Years Old
William sat on the park bench, sneakers dangling from its stone edge. The top of his teddy bear, Maxwell, was moist—an unfortunate side affect of being used as a handkerchief. The snuffles were beginning to subside. Tall eucalyptus trees rustled overhead, and Will felt that they were whispering about him. Will wondered how long it would take for his dad to notice he was missing. It felt like he’d been waiting for hours, but the clown-clock in his red wagon informed him he’d only left home 28 minutes ago.
The trouble had all started three days ago, the day before his birthday. He’d received a brown package in the mail from a mysterious “Uncle Raymond”. Inside was a brightly wrapped box of pirate legos. Dad had glanced at Mom in a way Will had never seen before; Mom had explained to Will that Uncle Raymond was an old friend from college and wasn’t it nice he’d bought him a present? Dad had not stopped looking at Mom and Mom was wearing a smile that made Will feel a little uncomfortable. Will retreated to his room to build a ship and entertained himself for the next two hours, throwing small grey cannonballs at his GI-Joes, muttering “Arrgh!” every few minutes.
At lunch, Dad was missing.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Mom said. “He had to go get some food for your party tomorrow, but he’ll be back in time for dinner.”
She placed a tuna fish sandwich and a Coke can in front of Will and wandered into the living room to chat online. She’d been doing that a lot lately.
Will pried open his soda with a fork; it was warm. He drank just enough to wash down the white bread and then walked into the living room.
“Hey, Mom, can Shawn come over and play with my legos?” he asked.
“Sure,” she murmured, not taking her eyes from the screen. He’d already punched in 5-4-7 before she snapped to attention and said, “Why don’t you ask if you can go over to Shawn’s house? I forgot that I needed to buy some more stuff for the party. I’ll drive you, if you want.”
Will looked at her with insulted pride and hung up the phone.
“It’s across the street and I’m practically nine years old, remember? I can walk by myself.”
Mom beamed and signed offline.
As Will stuffed his new legos into a Yu-Gi-Oh backpack, he heard his Mom talking to someone on the phone. He had already unlocked the front door when she came out of her bedroom wearing a new blouse and lipstick. She kissed him and he wiped off the pinkness.
“Make sure you’re back by 5:30 for dinner!” she called as she got into the car.
Will nodded, waved, and crossed the street, looking carefully both ways.
#
Shawn’s mom stuck her head into the bedroom.
“Hey, Will, it’s 5:45. Didn’t your mom want you home at 5:30?” she asked.
“Oh cra—I mean, fudge!” Will stammered. “Sorry, Shawn, I gotta go!”
He gathered up some disembodied heads and a few spare blocks and raced outside.
He called back, “Thanks, Mrs. Gartury! See you tomorrow, Shawn.”
Back at the house, Mom’s Saturn was missing, but Dad’s white pick-up was sitting in the driveway. Will breathed a sigh of relief and wandered into the house.
“Hey, Dad! I’m home!”
“In the kitchen, Will,” Dad replied.
Dad had recently taken up cooking as his latest hobby. Several months ago, it’d been model airplanes. Before that was philosophy, and Will could just remember when Dad had had a fetish for stamps. At the moment, he was adding chopped carrots to a large wok and pouring peanut oil over them.
Will sat down at the kitchen table and asked, “Where’s Mom?”
Dad’s jaw clenched. “I dunno. Did she say she was going out before you left?”
Just then, they both heard the garage door open. A moment later, Mom waltzed in with several plastic bags.
“Wait til you see what I got for the party!” she squealed. “Small pirate hats for all your friends and a sword for you, Birthday Man!”
She placed a black, plastic tri-cornered cap on his head and held forth a sword triumphantly, as if she were about to loot and pillage some unsuspecting village.
Dad turned with the garlic press still in his hand. “Did you get the plates, forks, cups, napkins and tablecloth?” he asked.
“Well… no,” she replied. “But who needs those things when we can dress-up!” At which point she pulled out a black eye patch and striped bandana from another bag.
“Did you order the cake and the balloons for me to pick up tomorrow morning?” Dad pressed.
“No, I did not,” Mom said, tersely. Her eyes flashed. “I’m surprised you even remembered. You seem to have been rather careless lately about other things.”
Dad chopped an onion with especial vehemence. “Well, I’m glad you at least made it to the store before coming home.”
Will’s emotional barometer dropped to his stomach, and he slipped out of the kitchen with his backpack in hand. He didn’t come back out till Dad announced that dinner was ready.
No one said much during dinner. Will pushed his rice and steamed bok choy around in circles. Dad asked him if he needed help with any homework. Mom mentioned how excited she was about tomorrow.
“We can bury a treasure chest with candy in it, and make a treasure map and then maybe we could…”
Will let his mind wander. He figured he’d be lucky if he actually got the sword she’d purchased.
#
Will placed the last dish in the dishwasher, and he looked around for anything else that could be loaded up. He noticed an open bottle of wine on the table. Mom had been sipping on a glass during dinner. Maybe she was still working on that one.
Nope, he’d already loaded her dinner glass into the dishwasher.
He went into the living room and kissed her on the cheek.
“Goodnight, Mom,” he said.
She seemed startled and downsized an internet window. “Oh, goodnight, sweetheart! Only four more hours and you’ll be nine years old!” She grinned and kissed him, and then dismissed him by turning back to the screen, taking a sip of her wine.
It took awhile to find his dad. He was up in their bedroom, reading from a fat, picture-less book with an unpronounceable name on the front cover.
“Goodnight, Dad,” Will murmured from the doorway.
Dad looked up and set down the book. “Come here, son. Are you excited about tomorrow?”
Will sat on the bed and let his dad place his arm around him. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“You guess so? I thought you’d be enthusiastic about turning nine! What’s the matter, Bud?”
Will shrugged. His dad pulled him close to his chest and held on a little longer than normal.
“It’ll be alright. It’s gonna be great,” he whispered into Will’s brown hair. He sat back and sighed. “You get to sleep and dream of storming castles and saving princesses.” Dad grinned and poked Will right where it tickled.
Will squirmed and smiled. “I don’t need to save no girls. I’m gonna be a pirate.”
“Guess knights in shining armor are out of style nowadays, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Dad tousled his hair and said, “Alright. Off you go. See you in the morning.”
Will wandered out of the master bedroom to his bathroom down the hall. He stared at himself as he put toothpaste on his toothbrush, and he thought about tomorrow as he put on his pajamas. Finally, he climbed into bed, turned out his lamp, and with Maxwell clutched under his arm, and stared at the darkness until he fell asleep.
#
The next day had been a success. Will and Dad had come home from church to find the house decorated with black streamers and they heard a boombox chanting, “Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me,” in the backyard. Mom had been busy.
They found her in the backyard, burying what looked like a spray-painted shoebox near the fence.
She finished and stood up, wiping her forehead with a dirty palm.
“Hello! We are just about ready. I’m gonna go change and the guests’ll be arriving in a half hour.”
He and Dad stuffed hornblowers and gold coins into party favor bags. Will sat down to watch cartoons and Dad started pulling out his fruit salad and the hamburger patties. He hadn’t made the cake, because Mom had specifically wanted a “pirate cake”.
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Will exclaimed. He turned off the TV and leapt for the door. It was Shawn and his mom.
“Why, hello, Cindy,” Will heard his mom say from behind him. He turned as she sauntered forward in a yellow dress with a low neckline. She swished past him and kissed Shawn’s mom on the cheek. “You are simply going to adore the decorations,” she said as she led Cindy into the kitchen.
He and Shawn followed and were soon properly accoutred in pirate gear.
The day went well, overall. Shawn’s dad showed up later and helped Dad at the grill. At least a dozen more boys were soon romping around the small house and even smaller yard. A little while later, as he and his friends were discovering “the treasure”, Will noticed a new guest, an older man, had entered the back yard. He was standing awfully close to Mom.
“Hey Will, look at this!” Shawn crowed. “We’re rich!” And he threw a handful of candy and plastic necklaces in the air. Will laughed and was enjoying a bite of chocolate when he heard shouts from the other end of the yard. Dad was telling Mom’s guest to leave and Mom was furiously telling him to “Behave!” Dad paused and then motioned towards the house. He, Mom, and the dark-haired man walked inside and Cindy came over to initiate a game of pin the parrot on the pirate.
A little while later, everyone sat down around the table, munching on fruit salad, hotdogs and hamburgers. Dad came in from the front yard and said, “Who’s ready for cake and ice cream?” He smiled, but all Will saw were teeth. Mom entered alone behind him and whispered in his ear. He stared at her angrily, glanced at Will, and smiled again.
“You know, you’re probably not hungry yet, are you? Let’s start with presents,” he said brightly. Mr. and Mrs. Gartury acted like their seats were too hard, but the boys raced to the living room with a general “Hurray!”
By the time Will had opened his last gift – a clock in the shape of a clown (some poor mother must have been desperate and stopped by the Dollar Store on her way to the party) – there was a rectangular, pale blue cake sitting on the table, encircled by plates.
After cake, most of the boys left. Cindy stayed to clean up while Will and Shawn sorted through the birthday loot. Soon the Gartury’s left, and Will carelessly glanced through the manual for the clock, though he had no idea what time it was. He hadn’t seen Mom in awhile. He found her crying in her room. He put his hand on her shoulder and she reached out to hug him.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “I hope you had a good time.” She reached for a lavender Kleenex and blew her nose.
“Yeah, sure, Mom. It was great.”
“I love you, kiddo. You know that don’t you?”
Will nodded.
“Good.”
#
Will woke up at 1:14 am to the sound of yelling in the kitchen. He scrunched his eyes tight together and held Max against his ear. Not again.
#
The next morning, Mom was gone and Dad had stayed home from work to walk him to school. Will didn’t ask any questions. He didn’t really want to know.
After school, he was supposed to hang out at Shawn’s house, but instead, he went home. He lifted up the edge of a red pot and pulled out the spare key Mom kept that Dad didn’t know about.
Will let himself into the front door and shut it carefully behind him. He headed directly to his room and started stuffing things into his backpack – a shirt, clean underwear, a pair of socks – then went to the kitchen. He grabbed a box of cereal and loaded everything into a wagon that stayed in the side yard. He was about to leave when he remembered Maxwell and the clock. He knew he might not need either, but it was handy to know what time it was when living at the park, and even though he was nine, he couldn’t begin an adventure like this without his fuzzy friend.
And that’s how he’d ended up on a park bench.
#
When Will woke up, the sun was getting low. He shivered and realized he’d forgotten his jacket. He’d have to go back for that. And the cereal was stale. And Max was lonely.
Suddenly he saw his Dad walking hurriedly towards the park, looking around frantically.
“Here I am, Dad!” Will called, and waved.
Dad ran forward and nearly smothered him. “Where have you been? When I got home and you weren’t there and Cindy said you hadn’t come home with Shawn, I got scared. I called your mom and she thought you might be here. Oh thank God you’re okay,” Dad sobbed.
Will had never seen his dad cry. He was pretty sure he never wanted to ever again. They sat there, both crying, for awhile. The sun set and they remained on the bench, staring at the horizon where the sun had slipped away.
“Hey Dad?” Will whispered.
“Yes, son?”
“I think I want to be a knight.”
Dad smiled and they started home, red wagon, clown clock, and teddy in tow.
The trouble had all started three days ago, the day before his birthday. He’d received a brown package in the mail from a mysterious “Uncle Raymond”. Inside was a brightly wrapped box of pirate legos. Dad had glanced at Mom in a way Will had never seen before; Mom had explained to Will that Uncle Raymond was an old friend from college and wasn’t it nice he’d bought him a present? Dad had not stopped looking at Mom and Mom was wearing a smile that made Will feel a little uncomfortable. Will retreated to his room to build a ship and entertained himself for the next two hours, throwing small grey cannonballs at his GI-Joes, muttering “Arrgh!” every few minutes.
At lunch, Dad was missing.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Mom said. “He had to go get some food for your party tomorrow, but he’ll be back in time for dinner.”
She placed a tuna fish sandwich and a Coke can in front of Will and wandered into the living room to chat online. She’d been doing that a lot lately.
Will pried open his soda with a fork; it was warm. He drank just enough to wash down the white bread and then walked into the living room.
“Hey, Mom, can Shawn come over and play with my legos?” he asked.
“Sure,” she murmured, not taking her eyes from the screen. He’d already punched in 5-4-7 before she snapped to attention and said, “Why don’t you ask if you can go over to Shawn’s house? I forgot that I needed to buy some more stuff for the party. I’ll drive you, if you want.”
Will looked at her with insulted pride and hung up the phone.
“It’s across the street and I’m practically nine years old, remember? I can walk by myself.”
Mom beamed and signed offline.
As Will stuffed his new legos into a Yu-Gi-Oh backpack, he heard his Mom talking to someone on the phone. He had already unlocked the front door when she came out of her bedroom wearing a new blouse and lipstick. She kissed him and he wiped off the pinkness.
“Make sure you’re back by 5:30 for dinner!” she called as she got into the car.
Will nodded, waved, and crossed the street, looking carefully both ways.
#
Shawn’s mom stuck her head into the bedroom.
“Hey, Will, it’s 5:45. Didn’t your mom want you home at 5:30?” she asked.
“Oh cra—I mean, fudge!” Will stammered. “Sorry, Shawn, I gotta go!”
He gathered up some disembodied heads and a few spare blocks and raced outside.
He called back, “Thanks, Mrs. Gartury! See you tomorrow, Shawn.”
Back at the house, Mom’s Saturn was missing, but Dad’s white pick-up was sitting in the driveway. Will breathed a sigh of relief and wandered into the house.
“Hey, Dad! I’m home!”
“In the kitchen, Will,” Dad replied.
Dad had recently taken up cooking as his latest hobby. Several months ago, it’d been model airplanes. Before that was philosophy, and Will could just remember when Dad had had a fetish for stamps. At the moment, he was adding chopped carrots to a large wok and pouring peanut oil over them.
Will sat down at the kitchen table and asked, “Where’s Mom?”
Dad’s jaw clenched. “I dunno. Did she say she was going out before you left?”
Just then, they both heard the garage door open. A moment later, Mom waltzed in with several plastic bags.
“Wait til you see what I got for the party!” she squealed. “Small pirate hats for all your friends and a sword for you, Birthday Man!”
She placed a black, plastic tri-cornered cap on his head and held forth a sword triumphantly, as if she were about to loot and pillage some unsuspecting village.
Dad turned with the garlic press still in his hand. “Did you get the plates, forks, cups, napkins and tablecloth?” he asked.
“Well… no,” she replied. “But who needs those things when we can dress-up!” At which point she pulled out a black eye patch and striped bandana from another bag.
“Did you order the cake and the balloons for me to pick up tomorrow morning?” Dad pressed.
“No, I did not,” Mom said, tersely. Her eyes flashed. “I’m surprised you even remembered. You seem to have been rather careless lately about other things.”
Dad chopped an onion with especial vehemence. “Well, I’m glad you at least made it to the store before coming home.”
Will’s emotional barometer dropped to his stomach, and he slipped out of the kitchen with his backpack in hand. He didn’t come back out till Dad announced that dinner was ready.
No one said much during dinner. Will pushed his rice and steamed bok choy around in circles. Dad asked him if he needed help with any homework. Mom mentioned how excited she was about tomorrow.
“We can bury a treasure chest with candy in it, and make a treasure map and then maybe we could…”
Will let his mind wander. He figured he’d be lucky if he actually got the sword she’d purchased.
#
Will placed the last dish in the dishwasher, and he looked around for anything else that could be loaded up. He noticed an open bottle of wine on the table. Mom had been sipping on a glass during dinner. Maybe she was still working on that one.
Nope, he’d already loaded her dinner glass into the dishwasher.
He went into the living room and kissed her on the cheek.
“Goodnight, Mom,” he said.
She seemed startled and downsized an internet window. “Oh, goodnight, sweetheart! Only four more hours and you’ll be nine years old!” She grinned and kissed him, and then dismissed him by turning back to the screen, taking a sip of her wine.
It took awhile to find his dad. He was up in their bedroom, reading from a fat, picture-less book with an unpronounceable name on the front cover.
“Goodnight, Dad,” Will murmured from the doorway.
Dad looked up and set down the book. “Come here, son. Are you excited about tomorrow?”
Will sat on the bed and let his dad place his arm around him. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“You guess so? I thought you’d be enthusiastic about turning nine! What’s the matter, Bud?”
Will shrugged. His dad pulled him close to his chest and held on a little longer than normal.
“It’ll be alright. It’s gonna be great,” he whispered into Will’s brown hair. He sat back and sighed. “You get to sleep and dream of storming castles and saving princesses.” Dad grinned and poked Will right where it tickled.
Will squirmed and smiled. “I don’t need to save no girls. I’m gonna be a pirate.”
“Guess knights in shining armor are out of style nowadays, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Dad tousled his hair and said, “Alright. Off you go. See you in the morning.”
Will wandered out of the master bedroom to his bathroom down the hall. He stared at himself as he put toothpaste on his toothbrush, and he thought about tomorrow as he put on his pajamas. Finally, he climbed into bed, turned out his lamp, and with Maxwell clutched under his arm, and stared at the darkness until he fell asleep.
#
The next day had been a success. Will and Dad had come home from church to find the house decorated with black streamers and they heard a boombox chanting, “Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me,” in the backyard. Mom had been busy.
They found her in the backyard, burying what looked like a spray-painted shoebox near the fence.
She finished and stood up, wiping her forehead with a dirty palm.
“Hello! We are just about ready. I’m gonna go change and the guests’ll be arriving in a half hour.”
He and Dad stuffed hornblowers and gold coins into party favor bags. Will sat down to watch cartoons and Dad started pulling out his fruit salad and the hamburger patties. He hadn’t made the cake, because Mom had specifically wanted a “pirate cake”.
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Will exclaimed. He turned off the TV and leapt for the door. It was Shawn and his mom.
“Why, hello, Cindy,” Will heard his mom say from behind him. He turned as she sauntered forward in a yellow dress with a low neckline. She swished past him and kissed Shawn’s mom on the cheek. “You are simply going to adore the decorations,” she said as she led Cindy into the kitchen.
He and Shawn followed and were soon properly accoutred in pirate gear.
The day went well, overall. Shawn’s dad showed up later and helped Dad at the grill. At least a dozen more boys were soon romping around the small house and even smaller yard. A little while later, as he and his friends were discovering “the treasure”, Will noticed a new guest, an older man, had entered the back yard. He was standing awfully close to Mom.
“Hey Will, look at this!” Shawn crowed. “We’re rich!” And he threw a handful of candy and plastic necklaces in the air. Will laughed and was enjoying a bite of chocolate when he heard shouts from the other end of the yard. Dad was telling Mom’s guest to leave and Mom was furiously telling him to “Behave!” Dad paused and then motioned towards the house. He, Mom, and the dark-haired man walked inside and Cindy came over to initiate a game of pin the parrot on the pirate.
A little while later, everyone sat down around the table, munching on fruit salad, hotdogs and hamburgers. Dad came in from the front yard and said, “Who’s ready for cake and ice cream?” He smiled, but all Will saw were teeth. Mom entered alone behind him and whispered in his ear. He stared at her angrily, glanced at Will, and smiled again.
“You know, you’re probably not hungry yet, are you? Let’s start with presents,” he said brightly. Mr. and Mrs. Gartury acted like their seats were too hard, but the boys raced to the living room with a general “Hurray!”
By the time Will had opened his last gift – a clock in the shape of a clown (some poor mother must have been desperate and stopped by the Dollar Store on her way to the party) – there was a rectangular, pale blue cake sitting on the table, encircled by plates.
After cake, most of the boys left. Cindy stayed to clean up while Will and Shawn sorted through the birthday loot. Soon the Gartury’s left, and Will carelessly glanced through the manual for the clock, though he had no idea what time it was. He hadn’t seen Mom in awhile. He found her crying in her room. He put his hand on her shoulder and she reached out to hug him.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “I hope you had a good time.” She reached for a lavender Kleenex and blew her nose.
“Yeah, sure, Mom. It was great.”
“I love you, kiddo. You know that don’t you?”
Will nodded.
“Good.”
#
Will woke up at 1:14 am to the sound of yelling in the kitchen. He scrunched his eyes tight together and held Max against his ear. Not again.
#
The next morning, Mom was gone and Dad had stayed home from work to walk him to school. Will didn’t ask any questions. He didn’t really want to know.
After school, he was supposed to hang out at Shawn’s house, but instead, he went home. He lifted up the edge of a red pot and pulled out the spare key Mom kept that Dad didn’t know about.
Will let himself into the front door and shut it carefully behind him. He headed directly to his room and started stuffing things into his backpack – a shirt, clean underwear, a pair of socks – then went to the kitchen. He grabbed a box of cereal and loaded everything into a wagon that stayed in the side yard. He was about to leave when he remembered Maxwell and the clock. He knew he might not need either, but it was handy to know what time it was when living at the park, and even though he was nine, he couldn’t begin an adventure like this without his fuzzy friend.
And that’s how he’d ended up on a park bench.
#
When Will woke up, the sun was getting low. He shivered and realized he’d forgotten his jacket. He’d have to go back for that. And the cereal was stale. And Max was lonely.
Suddenly he saw his Dad walking hurriedly towards the park, looking around frantically.
“Here I am, Dad!” Will called, and waved.
Dad ran forward and nearly smothered him. “Where have you been? When I got home and you weren’t there and Cindy said you hadn’t come home with Shawn, I got scared. I called your mom and she thought you might be here. Oh thank God you’re okay,” Dad sobbed.
Will had never seen his dad cry. He was pretty sure he never wanted to ever again. They sat there, both crying, for awhile. The sun set and they remained on the bench, staring at the horizon where the sun had slipped away.
“Hey Dad?” Will whispered.
“Yes, son?”
“I think I want to be a knight.”
Dad smiled and they started home, red wagon, clown clock, and teddy in tow.
posted by Generic Muse at 1:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home