Had his dads spunk, that was good. Matt finished going on about everything and we rejoined Clara in the living room.
Little Gregory wasn’t ready to stay asleep, and I sat next to Clara as she cooed to him. I reach out with my pinky which was a monster compared to his little hand and tried to get him to grasp on.
“HI Gregory, It’s grandpa.” I coo. His hand was cold as I touched it so I backed off and recovered him with the blanket that was then half draped over him. “Seems so unreal doesn’t it? Having him here now.”
“Yes it does, but we waited four years to have this little guy and now he’s never leaving us,” Clara states to Gregory.
Gregory burps and then you can hear the distinct sound of a load being dropped into the tiny diaper. I’m invited to help change him but kindly refuse.
“Me and Matt have a deal that I change him at night and Matt gets him during the day, right hunny?” says Clara.
“Yeah,” he responds on his way to the nursery. Matt returns with wipes and a diaper in hand ready for the job. He positions himself on the floor and receives Gregory from Clara. Laying him down Matt gets to work. I glance over his shoulder and the little guy had tarry greenish black poop. Still working out what he had in his system from the womb I guess.
Finished now Matt picks up Gregory and asks if I want to hold him. I eagerly tell him yeah and find my seat beside Clara again. Matt hands me little Gregory, and I instinctual start rocking back and forth. Gregory is okay with me for a while and looks up into my eyes with his beautiful browns, until he realizes I’m not mom or dad. Not sure if he could see that clearly yet, but my smell from driving all day probably gave it away.
Gregory begins to cry for his mom or dad, and I hand him back over to Clara.
“Thank you,” I tell them both getting up from the couch. I lead Matt outside to the back where he fetches a beer from a cooler in his truck from work.
“Surprised they’re still in there. How long did they give you off of work for the little one?” I ask Matt.
“Eight weeks leave.”
“Nice,” I reply grabbing the beer from Matt. We stay outside for a while talking about how he was when he was a baby, and I gave him tips for fussiness and gas to help relieve the child so he didn’t have to go through those endless nights of sleep right away if he didn’t have to. Anything I could really do to help.
“Oh, I have something for you,” I tell Matt heading to the truck. I open up the back seat and pull out the box marked Matt.
“What’s in there?” he asks.
“Everything I have from when you were a baby,” I tell Him.
“That’s awesome, can we go in and go through it with Clara?”
“Of course, it’s yours now.”
Jumping ahead of Matt I hold open the door for him as he enters the house and sits next to his wife placing the box next to him. I stand in the middle of the room to watch, still too stiff from the drive to sit anymore than I have to. I forgot about that earlier, but the muscles are aching for a good stretch now.
Matt opens the box and first pulls out his birth certificate.
“Oh cute, It’s little daddy feet,” says Clara.
“Hold on a sec,” Matt says getting up with the certificate he walk into the kitchen and comes back with both papers. The couple sits there and compare the size and lines of the feet for a while before moving on to the next items. The rest was mostly photos of Matt growing up and articles of the newspaper that featured him on the football team.
“We’ll have to find a special place for all this stuff, maybe do side by sides as he grows up in his room,” says Clara.
Matt pulls out his little booties from when he was a newborn and right away lifts the blanket to place them on Gregory.
“Oh one more thing,” I tell them heading back out the door to the truck. I take out a second box marked Matt and bring it inside.
“Here’s all his clothes from when he was a baby up to about four years old,” I open the box and reveal all of his outfits that were crammed in his dresser that I dumped into the box just before he turned five to make room for all his big boy clothes he would need and just kept it in there tucked away since.
Clara lowers herself from the couch to the floor with Gregory to go through and examine the clothes. She obviously does not like a lot of them by the look on her face but all the ones that had that vintage look were immediately folded and set aside, probably to be put away as soon as I wasn’t around.
I didn’t mind the sorting, it made me happy actually with every outfit she picked out for their son knowing I must have done somewhat of a good job raising him. I leave the two of them to go through Matt’s old things and head to the kitchen to make them dinner.
Making dinner for them may not seem like much, but with that constant attention seeker even the simplest of chores could be daunting. I find the potatoes and begin to bring the water to a boil while I search the fridge for the main course. Just chicken in there, but I’ll make it work.
Finding the seasoning I put together a home made rub and shake the chicken in a ziplock bag with the new rub and then place them in hot oil on the stove. The potatoes are cooking now and should be done around the same time as the chicken.
“Smells good in there,” Clara yells from the other room. She must have sent Matt in because he was soon behind me asking if I needed any help. I reassured him I have everything and shooed him away to go spend time with Clara and their son.
I set the table and mashed the potatoes with loads of butter and a little bit of sour cream and chives.
“Dinner’s ready!” I announce.
“Shh,” Matt comes in. “Gregory is finally sleeping. Want to come see?” I nod and he leads me tip toeing to the nursery that we had completed together earlier in the season.
Gregory was passed out on his back in a sleeper suit, his head cocked to the side. We watched for a minute as his breathing greatly raised and lowered his chest and then we snuck back out to go to the kitchen and eat.
Clara had already gotten things going in the short time I was gone and had glasses filled and the napkins placed that I could not find earlier. We sit around the table together and it’s my turn to embarrass Matt as I take out an envelope of pictures from my coat pocket that I had set aside from the box earlier before I loaded it into the truck at home.
They were of all the embarrassing pictures of Matt I could find, Him writing all over himself with permanent marker, covered from head to toe in manure from the local barn we visited, and of course him playing with his sister’s dolls. Hadley could not make this trip because she has finals this week but Matt and Hadley are planning a road trip for when Gregory is two months to show him off to the whole family, specifically those who could not travel such as Clara’s grandparents whom were to brittle to do much of anything anymore other than sit around and hope for visitors such as them to come.
We finish the meal, and I clean up as Matt is trying to pry the pictures of him away from Clara. They don’t have a disposal so I scrape the scraps into the garbage and fill the sink with bubbles for them to soak overnight as it was getting late. I go over to Matt and Clara at the table and congratulate them again on their new son and apologize for being old and having to call it a night.
Matt sets me up with several pillows and blankets on the sofa as they have no guest room, they just couldn’t afford anything bigger yet with just starting out and all. Thanking him I fluff the pillows quickly coming to a snore as I lay down.
For the first time, I’m up before Hadley. She’s still sleeping as I slip into the kitchen and start our morning brew. Searching my mind I think of what we should be doing that day. Her school days will be coming up before we know it so better to get that done and out of the way before it becomes too late.
It’s only ten to six in the morning but somehow I feel wide awake as I start up the griddle and get ready for pancakes. I get the batch together and throw in half a bag of chocolate chips. Seems like a lot
but I made way too much batter for the two of us. I spray the griddle with that cheap imitation butter stuff and pour on the first six pancakes. That gets me about half way through the batter I made. I set the pancakes on a plate in the microwave as if that would keep them warm while I did the second batch but in reality they would probably be forgotten about until the next time I used the thing.
Finishing the second batch Hadley is still not up so I set the table and sit down alone. The syrup is cold so I remove the pancakes from the microwave and warm up the syrup before setting the pancakes back in.
Satisfied now I dig into my fluffy flap jacks and just let each bite sit on my tongue and let the chocolate chips melt into my buds before chewing and swallowing to make room for the next bite of candy cakes as I like to call them.
Hadley comes in around six thirty, and I invite her to sit. I get up and pour her a cup of coffee then get her a stack of three pancakes, I doubt she’ll eat them all but again there was a ton of them, so I really didn’t care. I just wanted them gone.
“What’s got you so up and cheery this morning?” she asks.
“I don’t know, just must have had a good night.”
“Can you hand me the syrup?” I oblige and pass it over. Done now I sit and watch Hadley eat. I thought about grabbing the sudoko to pass the time, but this was more pleasing. I barely let her pause to stop eating when I grab her plate and toss the rest out. Grabbing my coat I look at her as she returns my stare blankly like what the heck.
“Come on let’s go,” I tell her. She rolls her eyes at me as if we didn’t do enough the day before and grabs her jacket from the chair to come with.
Jumping in the truck I turn on the radio and start singing to the jam while tapping along on the steering wheel.
We’re headed to the next town where the nearest mall was, and I had plenty of time to get my jam on. Hadley was starting to act like a normal teen, embarrassed of her parent’s actions and was just trying to stare off out the window like I didn’t exist.
I take the mall exit and head to the gas station first.
“Wait here,” I tell her. I run inside to the ATM and pull out a couple hundred bucks for the day. I put the money in my wallet and gleefully head back to the truck. We drive the last few blocks to the mall and park it in front of the main entrance.
“What are we doing here?” she asks.
“Back to school shopping,”
“But I’m not going back for a few more weeks,” she states.
“No sense in putting it off, come on,” I get out of the truck and shut the door heading for the mall. Once inside I wait for Hadley to drudge in, cause you know, every teen girl wants to be seen at the mall with their dad. I give her the money I had just gotten at the ATM and gesture around the whole mall as to gesture for her to pick out whatever she wanted.
I follow her through the mall as she quickly window browses but heads past all the small stores and heads for one of the major retailers.
Inside she grabs a cart and begins to fill it with all sorts of studded jeans, sparkle jeans, printed jeans, just jeans. Then we headed over to the shirt section and she only stopped by the t-shirt stand but grabbed one of like everything they had before going to the dressing rooms. Not even thinking I followed her and she stoped and pointed at me.
“Wait here,” she instructed pointing to the rigid plastic chair outside the dressing rooms. I sat and started to tap my leg with impatience. Who knew how long it would take her to go through the dozen jeans she grabbed. I knew the shirts would be simple enough, they were just t-shirts. She just needed to pick out the shirts she liked best, but the jeans, bah, who knew.
I go on my phone to pass the time and of course, bring up my sudoko app. I’m there for about forty minutes and my excitement grows dim as I begin to yawn from my lack of caffeine at the present time.
Soon after Hadley comes out with about five jeans folded up and most of the shirts she brought in with her.
“I’m all set,” she stated.
“Wow, that was quick. Are you sure you don’t want to go anywhere else?”
“No. I know what I like. We’re good to check out.”
We go to the register and the total comes up sixty bucks less than the money I had given her. Hadley goes to hand me back the change, but I refuse, telling her to keep it for herself or an emergency if she needed it. She pauses, but accepts and puts the change back in her purse thanking me for the gesture.
With nothing else to do we head to the food court and get some Chinese doughnuts, and then we stop by the coffee stand to refill our energy needs.
Heading out of the mall with her bags in tow I’m unsure of what to do next as I figured most women took all day to shop for clothes. Well I guess its to the super store to get the generic supplies.
The place is busy for a weekday morning as we walk through the school supply aisles that were heavily picked over. There was not much left for her to chose from, but it was all pretty plain and much the same. Hadley had picked out a bunch of black, red, and purple notebooks and a couple binders. Then she went searching for that perfect pen.
I guess there was some kind of special pen that she like to write with. It just had the right grip and rolled smoothly on the paper without smearing. Not sure what she was referring to but she evidently found it in the office supply aisle. All that was left was a backpack. Which again was a quick pick for her. It was pretty plain Jane, just a black bag with a brown leather bottom. It was on clearance too, so this would be an affordable trip.
When we checked out Hadley told her not to bother bagging it, just to throw everything inside the backpack, made sense just haven’t done it before. Haven’t done school shopping at all actually since they were gone before I had the chance.
Well I can’t say that because I still picked up back to school outfits and backpacks for her and Matt, they were just sitting in the room at home. Never did get them actual supplies though like the plain pencils and such, just didn’t seem that exciting for gifts to me so I never got them.
Hadley tosses the bag in the back of the truck with her clothes and jumps in the front seat next to me. I turn on the rock station again and get ready to jam when Hadley shakes her head and changes the channel on me before I can get going.
We head back to our hometown listening to her screaming music which she apparently likes but will not sing to or even acknowledge.
I get off an exit early so we can head to Ed’s and see what’s going on with him. Besides I wasn’t sure that he’s seen me with Hadley since she first got dropped off.
“Hi Hadley, Ben,” Ed greats us coming in. Hadley seems confused but still says hi in return and gives him a little awkward wave.
Ed notices the encounter and explains me and his relationship to her.
“Ah, so you’re the guy who helped him stock up all those presents for us,” Hadley replies to his story.
“Yeah, I’m that guy, giving into your dad’s fulfilled delusions.” I talk to Ed for a while asking him how things are going and he starts to prod about the car.
“You have a ’67?” asks Hadley in amazement. “Where is it?” she demands.
“At home in the garage,” I tell her.
“In the garage? You’re driving me around in that old truck when we could be cruising in a ’67? Come on.”
I try to explain to her that we just got it tuned and that it hasn’t been driven in years, but she won’t have any of it. All she cares about is that I have one, it’s drivable, and we weren’t driving it. There she had a point.
Hadley is tugging at me now trying to get me out of the store and home. I thank Ed for his conversation and head out.
I pull up to the side of the road in front of the house, leaving the driveway empty for obvious reasons. Hadley jumps out of the truck and marches straight to the garage. Not having the energy to pursue her I stand by the tailgate and watch her as she opens the door to the garage and stares in amazement at the ’67.
She wal
ks in and runs her hands up and down the sides of the vehicle, making a complete circle and inspecting everything.
“She’s beautiful. Where’s the keys?” she asks.
I walk up to the car and pull the keys out from the glove box and hand them to her.
“Want to start it up?” I ask. Her eyes gleam as she slides into the driver’s seat and wraps her hands around the steering wheel to get a feel. She turns over the car and it growls to life. “Alright hop out, it’s my turn.”
Hadley gets out and goes around to the passenger seat as I climb in. Revving the engine up a few times for her excitement she puts her hands out to feel the vibrations in the air coming off the motor.
We back out of the drive and start out on our cruise. We head out and start on the trip I was planning around the lake with her. Windows down and radio on we cruise for the rest of the day and into the night. Getting late we start to search for a place to stay and come across a quaint motel on the edge of the lake about five miles out from the last town.
I get the room key and we head inside. There’s only one pizza place that delivers out here and Hadley gets on the phone to order right away. We put on the free movie channel and wait for our food.
An hour goes by before we get that knock on the door. I pay the man and hand over the pizza to Hadley. We stay up later than usual watching some horror flick until it ended, then I turned off the television for the night. Hadley curled up on her bed on top of the covers and began to doze off. Going over to the small closet I grabbed out the spare blanket and placed it on top of her before climbing into my own bed and calling it a night.
16
The world is before us as I drive the truck around the lake with Hadley and Matt. Hadley is 14 and Matt 16. The seascapes roll by us as we cruise on the old lakefront drive taking in all the scenery as we go. Every fifteen to thirty miles is a viewpoint where we stop at and take pictures of the beautiful scenery before us.
A Father's Dreams Page 17
