by DW Cee
“I’m fine. What brings you back here?”
“Olivia,” his eyes slightly squinted, his nostrils flared and there was exasperation in his voice. “Do you know how many lunches I’ve skipped to come find you and Oliver? I even stayed up all night on Sunday and put in extra hours in hopes of having a long lunch break with you two last Monday. Of course, I ended up looking like a child predator sitting on a park bench by myself for two hours hoping you would stop by.”
I laughed out loud.
“Don’t laugh at me. All the mothers kept giving me dirty looks and I’ve been yawning since last week. You know I hate being sleep deprived. You sure you’re okay? Your face is pale.” His hands touching my face sent a shock to my system. I wanted to surrender to his gentle caress.
“I’m alright. Everyone gets sick occasionally. What brings you back here? I thought you’d be stuck behind your desk crunching numbers this time of the year.”
“I wanted to talk to you about…”
“Mr. Hutchison,” Ollie yelled. "Come push me on the swing."
Unable to resist his son, Jamie ran over and pushed Ollie higher and higher to our son’s delight. I walked nearby and listened to their endearing conversation.
“I’m happy to see you again, Oliver.”
“Me too!”
"Did you miss me?”
“I think so,” Ollie answered.
“Good, because I know I missed you. I kept thinking about you after our lunch. Are you hungry? Should we go eat?”
“Yay! Let’s eat pizza.” Jamie carried Ollie over and attempted to pull me along.
“Mommy, can we have lunch with Mr…. can I call you Mr. Big Ollie since your name is the same as mine?” Ollie directed the question at his father.
“Sure!” Jamie answered in excitement. “Just a second, Ollie, let me answer this call.” He handed Ollie over to me as his phone buzzed in his pocket.
“Oh, hi Mom. What’s up?”
My nerves rattled when I realized Rose was on the phone. I didn’t want her to know that I was here with her son again.
“No, I can’t do lunch today. How about a late dinner or an early breakfast? Alright. I’ll call later. Bye.”
Before the call was done, I started walking away with Ollie. Jamie quickly caught up to us.
“Where are you going without me?” he asked the both of us.
“I figured you’d like to be with your mom. Do your parents live in New York as well?”
“No, they’re here unexpectedly to see a friend who’s ill. They called to see if I was free for lunch.”
“I assume they are well?”
“Yeah, they’re both doing very well.”
“Ollie and I will get going. Have a good lunch with your parents.” I thought about sending my regards to Rose and Harry but decided against it. Last thing I wanted was for them to think I was trying to take their son away from a happy home.
“Liv, wait. I told them I couldn’t have lunch with them. I need to talk to you. If it’s okay, I’d like to have lunch with the both of you today.”
“Mommy, let’s have lunch with Mr. Big Ollie,” our son pleaded.
“Oliver, his name is Mr. Hutchison or you can call him Mr. Jamie.”
“No. He said I can call him Mr. Big Ollie. That’s our secret name, right?” Ollie asked Jamie.
“Right,” he affirmed and picked him up and spun him around.
“That was fun. More!”
Jamie flipped Ollie upside down and around his back and to the front. Ollie loved it. Without a father this was the kind of attention he couldn’t get. Eventually Ollie ended up sitting on Jamie’s shoulders.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about Oliver after we met. He left such an imprint. It was weird how connected I felt to this little kid. I can see why you…” He stopped talking. Both Hutchison boys were more than smitten with one another. “There’s a great Italian place near my work. We can order pizza for Oliver and they have our favorite gnocchi in vodka tomato cream sauce. I’ve thought of you many times eating there.”
My heart tingled in pain. Many wonderful times were shared over a bowl of gnocchi. I was glad to know even for Jamie, these were joys that couldn’t easily be erased.
We sat and ordered and Jamie and Ollie were engrossed in a conversation about fire "twucks" as our son would call them. Neither noticed me watching them, wondering how within the course of two meetings, they both couldn’t get enough of one another.
“I brought you a present for your birthday. Was it really your birthday last week?”
“It’s tomowow.”
“That’s what you said last time I saw you.” Jamie tickled Ollie. “Are you tricking me?”
“Mommy, isn’t my birthday tomowow?”
“It’s this Saturday.”
“Here you go.” Jamie reached into his coat pocket and produced and old fire truck. “This was mine when I was a little boy about your age. I looked for it all over my house and finally found it the other day. My mom kept this for me because it was one of my favorite toys. I want you to have it.”
Ollie jumped out of his seat and hugged Jamie. I turned my head away as I felt the tears surge.
“Thank you Mr. Big Ollie. I’ll take good care of your twuck.”
“Jamie.” We all turned to the voice that greeted him.
“Mom. What are you doing here?”
If Rose looked surprised to see me, she turned pale the moment she laid eyes on Oliver. She knew instantly who he was. There was no fooling this grandmother. I had to think fast to get us out of this predicament.
I stood up. “Hello Rose. It’s nice to see you again.”
“Olivia. What a surprise. How did you and Jamie meet again?”
“Can you believe it, Mom? She’s been living in New Jersey this whole time and I ran into her at Central Park.”
“Who’s this?” She turned to our Ollie. “Hello. Aren’t you cute.”
“I’m Ollie and my mommy says that I’m the cutest.”
“Mommy?” Rose questioned. “How old are you, Ollie?”
“I’m four today, five tomowow and thwee last time.”
“If you’re almost five, then…” I couldn’t decipher the look in her eyes – a glint, maybe disbelief or perhaps relief? My eyes had to turn away. She would see right through the lies I was about to tell.
“Isn’t he cute?” Jamie placed Ollie on his lap. They really did look so much alike.
“Olivia, I don’t know how to react to your son. I’m confused as to how you have a son with your condition and why your son looks identical to my son when he was five.” She sounded upset.
“Mom, I’ll explain about Ollie later. Why don’t you sit and have lunch with us. Please?”
Rose sat down at her son’s pleading and Ollie immediately sensed this tense situation and came over to me. He sat on my lap facing my chest and wouldn’t turn around. My rapid heartbeat only added to his fear.
“Olivia…” Rose started again but was interrupted by Jamie’s cell phone.
“Excuse me, I need to take this. It’s the office. Mom…please!” My protection walked away and I was forced to face Rose alone. I knew she knew the truth to some extent. How I would get myself out of this situation, I did not know.
“Please, Olivia. I’m not upset as you might believe. I’m shocked more than anything. Your Oliver looks just as Jamie did when he was a child. This can’t be coincidence. Can you please tell me what’s going on?”
“Rose, you know my medical condition better than anyone here. How many doctors did we go see together? I don’t want to discuss this any further and I hope this conversation will stay between the two of us.” While talking to Rose, I pushed Ollie’s right ear into my chest and covered his left ear with my hand. “Please don’t confuse my son with yours.”
“You can’t expect me to let this go. Do you not see the resemblance?” Tears came out of Ollie as Rose’s voice sounded threatening to him.
I got up with
Ollie still in my arms. “Good bye, Rose.”
As I walked away, Rose grabbed my arms. “Please, Olivia, I know I’m not your favorite person. I know I was responsible for breaking you and Jamie up. But please don’t punish my son because of me. I’m sorry, Olivia! I’m sorry for what I did to you.”
“Rose, I’m not upset with you and I’m not trying to punish anyone. There’s not much for me to say about my son that will satisfy you. Please tell Jamie we said goodbye.”
My heart beat even faster fearing a run-in with Jamie on our way out. Walking as fast I could, I took my crying child and got into a cab.
“Mommy, why was that lady mad at you?”
“Ollie, she wasn’t mad. She was just asking questions.” I wiped away his tears. “Were you scared?”
His head shook yes.
“Don’t be scared. No matter what, we have each other, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
I kissed his forehead.
“I think we need to find a new park.”
“Why Mommy? I like Central Park.”
“I know, sweetheart. There are other great parks in New York. Let’s go look for them next week.”
“No. How will Mr. Big Ollie find me?”
“Do you like Jamie?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What about him do you like? You’ve only seen him twice now.”
“I don’t know. I just do. Do you think he’d like to be my daddy?”
What could I say to this question? Would I confess and tell him that Jamie was his father? Should I lie and say no? Or could I just ignore him and hope this topic never came up again?
“Huh, Mommy?” Ollie interrupted my thoughts.
“You must be hungry. Let’s go home and have lunch.”
All week long I couldn’t let go of Rose and our conversation at the restaurant. She knew. There was no doubt in my mind that she knew the truth. Maybe I should have been honest and told both of them about Ollie. Though they might have liked the news, there was no way Melinda and her child or children would enjoy hearing about our son. It was best this way.
DANI 2010
“Mom… Mom!” She looked dazed then startled. “What are you thinking about so seriously?”
“Dani, when did you get home?”
“Just now. Didn’t you ask me to help with Ollie’s party on Saturday? What do you want me to do?”
“Oh, um…” she shuffled around some of her notes then asked, “could you help by getting Ollie ready for bed? I think I’m going to lie down for a little while.”
“You okay, Mom? Why do you look like that?”
I expected her to ask how she looked but without a word she walked upstairs and shut her door. The last two weeks have definitely been weird around the house. My mother hadn’t looked this down since she broke up with Jamie. She couldn’t still be upset about Jamie. That was six years ago.
Running up the stairs I almost knocked over my little brother.
“Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” this little one called back to me.
“Whatcha up to?”
“I’m trying to make a phone call.”
“Who would you be calling?” My brother cracked me up. Here he was, almost five and he had maneuvered Mom’s cell phone to the call position and had dialed about twenty numbers. “Do you have friends who can answer your call?”
“Yes and I’m trying to call him but it won’t ring. Why won’t this phone start, Dani? Help me!” I caught the phone he threw down in frustration.
“Let me help you. Who is it that you want to call?”
“It’s Mr. Big Ollie.”
“What? Who’s that?”
“He’s my friend and he gave me his number on this card but I don’t know how to call him.”
Ollie started banging on the phone again.
“Give me that.” I took the card away from him. I turned it over to read Jamie Oliver Hutchison CPA. I couldn’t believe what I had read.
“Where did you get this?”
“Mr. Big Ollie gave it to me when he was pushing me on the swing and told me to call him if I wanted to talk to him. Dani, do you think he might want to be my daddy?”
Suddenly, it all clicked. I was so wrapped up in my own life I never took a good look at what was going on around me. Ollie was not adopted. He was a Hutchison. That’s why he looked so much like my mother and that’s why she looked at him with longing desire. He was Jamie’s son. How had this not occurred to me sooner?
“Ollie,” I took him to my room. “How did you meet Jamie?”
“I don’t know. I just met him at the park one day. Mommy said you knew him from a long time ago.”
“When did you see him?”
“Today and last time. We also saw some scawy lady who was mad at Mommy today and we left before I got to say bye to Mr. Big Ollie. I want to say bye to him.”
“I’ll help you call him tomorrow. It’s late now. Let’s go to sleep.”
“No, Dani. I want to call him now.” Ollie started crying. I recalled what Jamie looked like and I saw that resemblance tonight. “I need to talk to him.”
“Okay. I’ll call him from my phone. I don’t think you should use Mom’s phone.” My hands shook dialing the number. It was my fault my mom had separated from this man. It was all my fault that Mom and Ollie weren’t a family with him. If I hadn’t stopped talking to her all those years – all those stubborn, wasted years…she had begged me to come back to her, for us to be a family again. Aargh! “Ollie, he’s not answering the phone. I’ll help you call him again, tomorrow. Now go to sleep.”
“Where’s Mommy?”
“She’s not feeling well. Do you think I can tuck you in tonight? She’ll be fine by the morning.”
“Alwight. Can you sleep with me for a little bit?”
“Sure, little brother.” I hugged him and snuggled into his bed.
Thinking about my mom made me tear. That was why she was in such a funk. From what I could figure out, she met Jamie at the park somehow and she missed him. And then there was Ollie. Why had she lied to me and told me he was adopted? Why was I so stupid to believe this crazy story? Oh Mom, what have I done to you?
“Ian?”
“Yeah, gorgeous. Why are you still up at this hour? You couldn’t wait the few hours till we’d be together again?”
“Ian…” I started bawling thinking about Ollie and Mom and Jamie. The day I finally came home, two long years of shining off my mom’s pleading to forgive her, I found Mom hugging a darling little blond-haired boy. He looked just like Mom and she was holding him the way she used to hold me. The moment she saw me enter the kitchen door, she ran to me and hugged me just as lovingly. All my sins were forgiven. I tried to tell her how sorry I was but she wouldn’t hear it. She cried with me and stopped only when Oliver – the beautiful little boy – came and cried with us.
“What’s the matter, Dani? Why are you crying?”
My intention for calling Ian wasn’t to alarm him but to inform him about me, the prodigal child.
“You remember when I came back to Mom and I told you she had adopted Ollie? Remember how I told you that we talked all night but she only gave me sketchy details about Oliver saying that she wanted to talk about me?”
“Yeah…” Ian sounded intrigued and alarmed all together.
“Well, I just figured out that Ollie wasn’t adopted. He’s Jamie’s son.”
“What?”
“Mom lied to me…”
The reason for Mom’s deception could be multifold. With so many thoughts roaming through my head, I didn’t know whether I should be mad or sad that she felt the need to lie to me.
“Have you talked to your mom about Ollie? Did you ask her why she said Ollie was adopted?”
“No. She’s not doing too well and with Ollie’s party just a couple of days away, I don’t want to bother her. I’ll talk to her soon enough. I just wanted to get this off my chest.”
“Did I help at all?”
/>
I laughed. “Not one bit, but you can try your best when you get here. I’ve missed you. We haven’t seen each other since September.”
“I’ve been working as hard as I can on this degree so we could be together on the same continent. I’ve missed you something fierce and I can’t wait to see you. Sleep well and I’ll see you in 12 hours, okay? I love you.”
“I love you too. Bye.”
I was hugely relieved when Ollie forgot about calling Jamie this morning. I left early for the city and skipped class to go straight over to Jamie’s office. After tossing and turning all night, I was convinced the only right thing to do would be to try and get Mom and Jamie back together. One teeny, tiny problem – he was married according to my grandmother.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“Yeah. Could I speak with Jamie Hutchison?”
“May I ask who’s calling? He’s quite busy right now.” By the discrepancy of our clothing – me in jeans and a t-shirt and this lady in a nice suit – she didn’t see the importance of my visit.
“Please let him know Danielle Kingston is asking for him.”
She called and immediately I was ushered into his office.
“Dani!” I was greeted with a more than pleasant voice, to my surprise.
“Hi,” I meekly answered, “do you remember me?”
“Of course I remember you. There was a time I thought you would be my daughter. How could I forget you? What a nice surprise. Did you really come to see me? How did you know I worked here?”
I held up his business card. “Ollie showed this to me when he tried to call you last night.”
“He called me last night? I didn’t get his call. It would’ve been nice to talk to him. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye again.”
“I came to ask you a few questions and I also wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?” he questioned earnestly.
“Oh…for being so childish and selfish. I realized too late that you were perfect for my mom. My selfishness caused you and Mom a lot of heartache.” I looked over Jamie’s head while saying this because looking at his face would mean I’d have to experience not only my pain, but his pain as well. Being separated from Ian, I knew now how lonely it was to be away from a loved one.
