That Little Bit of Hope

2

Friday. . .

“Alright class, for our art session today, we are going to draw something exciting.” Hope smiled at the little faces in front of her, “How many of us have already celebrated their birthdays?”

A few of the kids rose up their hands, “And how many are still to celebrate their birthdays?”

The rest of the kids raised their hands, even Chase who barely had his in the air. But that was okay.

“Great, well today, we are going to draw our presents!” Hope waited for the little shrieks of excitement to quiet down, “So, for those who have already celebrated their birthdays you are going to draw your best present that you got. And for those whose birthdays are coming up, I want you to draw what you would like for your birthday. Okay class, let’s begin.”

Hope was excited, she knew this was a genius idea to find out what Chase wanted for his birthday and help Beau out. She went around the class peeping at what the kids were drawing. She enjoyed the concentration on their faces, for them they were working on masterpieces. She just saw the usual, dolls, teddy bears and trucks. She twirled all the way to Chase’s little desk. And behold,

“How come you haven’t drawn something Chase? Don’t you want anything for your birthday?” Hope leaned towards the boy with a smile.

When he didn’t answer, she coaxed him some more, “What’s the matter?”

With his eyes still on his blank paper he answered his teacher quietly, “I know what I want for my birthday. But I have never been good at drawing.”

Hope placed a pencil in his little hands, “In my class, everyone is a Picasso.”

“A what?” Chased asked confused.

“I mean, everyone can do anything as long as they try. We will keep practicing until we get it right. Now come on, show me.”

Chased seemed convinced and he began drawing the outline of his birthday. Hope gave a small sigh of relief and with that she left the little boy to his work.

After a few minutes she collected most of the drawings to pin them on the wall, it was also time for their little lunch break. She looked at Chase and he seemed to be done too so she went to see his work.

“Oh, you want a doll for your birthday Chase?” Hope lifted up the drawing and looked at it.

The little boy shook his head but did not say anything but twirl a red crayon in his fingers.

“It isn’t? Well it looks like a doll to me. What is it?”

“It is my mommy.” Chase answered and looked up at his teacher with his big bright eyes.

Hope’s smile faltered briefly before she put up her brave face again. She bent down low beside the boy and gave him a small hug, “Chase, l am truly so sorry your mother had to go away, but she still loves you very much. And, she is always with you, in here.” She touched his chest and a faint white glow beamed from her hand. She had to. She had to try to bury the emotions.

“But I want here at home, to play with me and help me with my homework and give me medicine when I get sick.” Chase argued.

Hope sighed, “She will still be doing that. But she will be doing it differently, from haven. And your Daddy will be helping her too. Like right now, she really needs to know what you want for your birthday, so she can tell Daddy to buy it for you. Will you be able to draw another present?”

Chase nodded and Hope was reassured.

“Okay we will do that after lunch. Let’s go catch some sunshine first.”

Beau sat in his office preparing quotations for two different companies. He stretched out and felt a numb pain on his right side. He had cracked four ribs. Only four ribs. Incredibly that was all. He sat back as he remembered the accident that robbed him of his mother’s child, his everything and left hs world crumbling before him. He wished it was a rainy night so he could blame it on slippery roads. Or perhaps a drunk driver had lost control of his Mercedes at 200km/hr and slammed into them. But that was not the case either. It was a bright day and they had just come from picking up Chase from school. They were rushing to the zoo where Brenda worked because the last surviving baby lion cub was not responsive and Brenda had been there as there as their doctor since they were born. They ran a red light. The last traffic lights before the gate to the Central zoo. The junction never had any traffic and Beau looked both right and left a dozen times before he even got to the crossroad. He has no idea where e other vehicle came from. Brenda was the only casualty that afternoon. Even the baby lion survived. Beau would traede places wth her in a heartbeat. He deserved to live and see her son grow up. She was selfless and died while trying hurry to save a life. But Beau had to be thankful that he still had his son, otherwise he would have not had any reason to carry on living. He got up with the quotations and let his team know that he was leaving for Chase’s school.

He pulled up to the almost empty parking lot and immediately noticed that Chase was sitting on a bench with his teacher in the little garden in front of him. He exited the vehicle as the two approached him.

“Hi, I uh, I am sorry I am late, I was a bit tied down at work.” Beau excused himself.

Hope waved her hand, “Don’t worry, it gave us some bonding time.”

Chase gave Hope a quiet goodbye and let himself in the car as Beau and his teacher went to stand under a tree for some shade.

“So, we had a good day today and I am happy to let you know that Chase was able to draw what he wanted for his present.” Hope handed him one of the papers she was holding.

“Fantastic.” Beau took the picture and looked at it.

From the way he was turning and twisting the picture in all angles, Hope couldn’t help but chuckle, “You have no idea what it is, do you?”

“Spiderman?” Beau shrugged shaking his head.

“Mr. Haas! You seriously think that is Spiderman?” Hope laughed.

Beau chuckled and guessed again, “Superman?”

“It’s the red Power Ranger!” Hope helped him out as she knew he couldn’t get it right.

Beau’s face brightened then he frowned and shook his head, “ Yeah, no I don’t see it.”

Hope laughed again, “It is, I asked. See there is the morphing thing and everything.”

Beau laughed lightly then looked at her, “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“It’s my pleasure, Mr. Haas. It was for the art session for today anyway. Although, that was not his first drawing; this was. He said it was. .”

“His mother.” Beau completed her sentence as he looked at the second picture. He could clearly see the resemblance. From the streaks of yellow crayon that was supposed to be the hair, to the brown color used for the eyes. And she was wearing red, her favorite color.

Hope gave him a small smile and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “It is all part of the healing process. Do not over think it, it is expected.”

“Thank you.” He turned to leave but remembered, “By the way, please just call me Beau.”

Saturday morning came fast and Beau was busy with breakfast when Chase made his way to the kitchen.

“Good morning buddy, how was your sleep? You slept okay?” Beau asked his son as he settle at the kitchen table.

Chase merely nodded and rested his head on the table.

“What would you like for breakfast? Cereal or toast?” Beau held up the box of cereal on one side and a packet of sliced bread on the other.

Chase still had his head rested on the table when he lazily pointed at the box of cereal.

Once they were done with breakfast Beau dropped Chase at his aunt’s house, Brenda’s older sister. No matter how many times he did, it was always still difficult to walk up to the door and knock. This was because the woman who answered it was the spitting image of his late wife, just a few years older. Beau was glad they had different hair styles because according to Brenda, people could not tell the apart when they were younger. And while Brenda had bone straight blonde hair, Paige had short curls. But the two had the same striking eyes and same smile.

“Hi, baby! Hi Beau.” Paige showered them with hugs when she answered the door.

Beau returned her smile, “Hi Paige.”

“Right on time, kiddo. We are all outside at the pool. Come on.” Zach, Chase’s eldest cousin called over his mother’s shoulder.

Brenda’s sister had a big family of with five children. Beau thought that it will help Chase since he was always fond of them and he will still be experiencing some motherly love from Paige. Beau tried to bring by Chase on the weekends as often as he can. His cousins were also somewhat older and so understood the trauma that their younger relative had experienced. They tried to engage him and keep him busy with activities as always. Beau was grateful.

“How was the week?” Paige leaned on the doorframe once Chase accepted Zach’s hand into the house.

Beau scratched his head, “It was okay, not bad. It’s just that like I told you, there is a new teacher at his school. I know Mrs. Finn would have known how to handle this situation. Right now we are just taking it day by day.”