Bottoms Out

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jacksonville, FL

MICKEY HURRIED HOME from work that evening wondering why he hadn’t heard from Chris. He’d been tied up in meetings most of the day and hadn’t found a free minute to call home. He was surprised when he walked through the backdoor and heard childish laughter coming from the kitchen.

“Way to go, Teddy,” Chris said when the laughter subsided. “Wait a minute, I think I heard the backdoor close. Mickey, is that you?”

“Who else would it be?” Mickey said. He stepped into the kitchen and did a double take. “What’s going on?”

“Teddy’s been helping me with dinner,” Chris said.

“It looks like somebody threw flour all over the place.”

“It does, doesn’t it? We had a little accident just now.”

“You’re surprisingly calm, given that your almost new gourmet kitchen is in shambles,” Mickey said.

“It’s nothing a damp sponge and a bit of elbow grease won’t take care of. Where’s your sense of humor?”

“I guess you had to be here to appreciate what happened, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true. Ready for dinner?”

“Do I at least have time to change?”

“Barely.”

Mickey hurried upstairs and changed, then returned to the ground floor. Teddy was in the dining room busily setting the table, so he went in search of the chef. He found him at the cooktop and grabbed him from behind.

“I didn’t get a hug when I came home just now,” Mickey said when he had his arms around Chris.

Chris spun in Mickey’s arms and kissed him. “Will this do? My hands are covered with cooking oil and other stuff.”

Mickey kissed him back. “I’ll accept that as a down payment and collect the balance later—much later.” He winked at Chris.

“Spoken like a banker—always collecting payments.”

“That’s me, banker through-and-through.”

“Dinner will be on the table in a couple of minutes,” Chris said.

“How can I help?”

“You can’t, at least not at the moment. Just have a seat at the table.”

“Your wish, my command.”

“You haven’t said that in a while.”

“Well, I’m saying it now. Okay?”

“Need you ask?”

They settled down at the dinner table, and ate in silence for several minutes, until Mickey said, “So, how was your day?”

“Busy,” Chris said. “We were all over the place shopping, starting with Publix.”

“All over the place?”

“You tell him, Teddy,” Chris said.

“We went to a computer store and got me a computer, and we had to go somewhere else and get a part for it. Then we took the trailer and got a desk and bookcase for my room.”

“A busy day, indeed,” Mickey said. “What about school and clothing?”

“I hope you can get off work early tomorrow, because we have an appointment with the headmaster of St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School tomorrow at four thirty.”

“I can do that. What about clothing?”

“If Teddy gets accepted at St. Mark’s, he’ll need uniforms instead of other clothes, so that trip can wait a day or two.”

“Sounds good,” Mickey said.

“Okay,” Chris said. “I’ve given a report of my day. What about you?”

“Me? I went to work, and I was there all day. You don’t want a blow-by-blow account of a bunch of long and boring meetings, do you?”

“Wrong answer. You were going to investigate day care.”

“And I did so. Teddy will be going to work with me starting Monday.”

“Good. That’s one more loose end taken care of. Are you ready for dessert?”

“Of course.”

“I made it,” Teddy said.

“That’s true,” Chris said. “And he did it without any help from me.”

“Bring it on,” Mickey said.

“Teddy, I think that’s your cue,” Chris said.

“Yes, Sir.”

Teddy removed all of their plates from the table, making several trips back and forth to the kitchen in the process. When he once again emerged from the kitchen, he was carrying a tray that held three small dessert plates, one of which he carefully set in front of each place at the table.

“What have we here?” Mickey said.

“Apple pie with ice cream,” Teddy said.

“Are you sure you don’t mean apple pie with invisible ice cream?” Mickey said.

“I have to go back to the kitchen and get the ice cream.”

Teddy returned to the kitchen and appeared a couple of minutes later with a container of ice cream and an ice cream scoop, which he used to carefully place a scoop of ice cream on each piece of pie. He carried the ice cream container and scoop back to the kitchen, and when he was again seated at the table, he looked at Chris and Mickey.

“Is it any good?” he said.

“We were waiting for you, kiddo,” Chris said.

“I’m going to find out right now,” Mickey said, then took a generous bite of the pie and added, “Yum.”

“It’s pretty good, isn’t it?” Chris said as he munched on a bite himself.

“That’s for sure,” Mickey said. “When did you start cooking, Teddy?”

“Ma was teaching me to cook,” Teddy said. “At least she was until she started getting sick.”

“Good for her.”

Teddy went into the library after dinner to watch television while Mickey and Chris cleaned up the kitchen.

“It’s a nice night outside,” Chris said.

“So?”

“So, why don’t we go sit on the porch for a while?”

“You talked me into it.”

They settled down in the swing, from which they had a great view of downtown Jacksonville at night.

“I really love the view from here, don’t you?” Chris said.

“Yeah. The lights reflecting on the water are great. So how did your day really go?”

“Pretty much as described, except for one thing.”

“And that was?”

“Teddy walked in on me while I was changing my ostomy bag.”

“Why did he do that?” Mickey said.

“The bathroom door was open, and he was looking for me.”

“So what happened?”

“I explained the whole process to him, and he seemed to understand.”

“Were you dressed at the time?”

“I’d stripped down to my boxers just like I always do when I deal with the bag at home.”

“By the way, don’t forget to have him added to your group insurance,” Mickey said.

“I did that by telephone today, and he’s fully covered. All I have to do is stop by the HR department and sign a form to make it binding.”

“I think we need to host another dinner party.”

“Why?”

“To introduce Teddy to Robbie, Anthony, and Jamie.”

“Yeah,” Chris said. “That’s not a bad idea, and they’re all close to Teddy in age. Better still, if he gets into St. Mark’s, he’ll already know three kids in his new school.”

“You keep saying if he gets in. Are you suggesting that he won’t?”

“Mick, St. Mark’s is a hugely popular school. The fifth grade might already be full.”

“No, it won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?” Chris said.

“Think positively.”

“Okay.”

“Teddy said you got him a computer.”

“Yep.”

“What about parental controls?”

“s**t! I didn’t think about that, probably because I have no idea how to do it.”

“Call Mike,” Mickey said. “It’s his business to know such things.”

“Yeah, will do, first thing in the morning.”

“Did you buy any games for his computer?”

“I picked up a boxed set containing two or three games.”

“What about taking him to the library?” Mickey said.

“Oops. Yet another thing I didn’t think about.”

“Why don’t you do it tomorrow when you’re running around shopping for school outfits and supplies?”

“Okay,” Chris said. “I don’t even know if he likes to read.”

“If he doesn’t now, we’ll make sure that he acquires the habit.”

“I grew up reading—in spite of everything—and Ma said that Teddy gets straight As, just like I did. My guess is that he probably does.”

“There you go,” Mickey said.

After they’d locked up the house for the night, they went looking for Teddy and found him curled up on the sofa in the library sound asleep. Chris turned off the television while Mickey picked up the sleeping child and carried him up to his room. Together they stripped Teddy down to his underwear and tucked him in bed. Back in their own bed, they took care of each other’s needs, and settled down to call it a night.

“We need to establish some rules for kids,” Chris said.

“Such as?”

“Bedtime for school nights; bedtime for weekends; limits on television, especially when there’s homework to be done. That sort of thing.”

“Handle it, Chris. Handle it.”

“What do you think is a reasonable bedtime hour for a not quite ten-year-old?”

“Geez, I have no idea. Let’s take a telephone survey of the parents we know.”

“Yeah, all three of them. Couples, I mean.”

The finally dozed off and were sleeping soundly when they were awakened by screams coming from Teddy’s room. They rushed into his room and found him thrashing around in his bed yelling, “No, don’t,” over and over again.

Chris shook Teddy gently by the shoulders. “Wake up, Teddy, you’re having a nightmare.”

It took them a while to get Teddy calmed down enough to go back to sleep, but they were finally able to return to their bed.

“I wonder what brought that on?” Chris said.

“No telling.”

“Yeah, but I keep remembering what Ma told me.”

“About?”

“She said she didn’t think Teddy particularly liked his grandparents.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, indeed. Add that to her track record with live-in boyfriends, and the mind goes a little overboard considering the possibilities.”

“Yeah. Can we go to sleep now?” Mickey said.

“Yeah. Love you.”

“Me too, you.”