What happened next was the longest conversation I’d ever had with my father in my entire life. Possibly longer than all our other conversations put together.
And it happened mostly because I was stalling.
Because I couldn’t face Cooper’s empty room.
So I opened with a real headline-grabber. “I always worry,” I said, “that I’m too much like you.”
“Too much like me?” my dad asked.
“You know,” I explained. “Not good with people.”
“I’m good with people,” my dad protested.
I gave him a look.
“You’regood with people, anyway,” my dad corrected. “You’re joined at the hip with Ashley and Pete. And your mom, too, by the way. Not to mention that kid Christopher.”
“Christopher?” I asked.
“The kid with the scar.”
“Dad, that’sCooper. How are you so bad with names?”
My dad shrugged, but now he was thinking about Cooper and me. “In my whole life,” my dad said then, “I’ve never had a friend like that.”
He hadn’t?
My dad went on. “I remember that first summer he moved to our block. You were both so scrawny. And completely inseparable, by the way. The two of you fell asleep playing board games in your room almost every night. He wasn’t even supposed to be there! He must’ve climbed in through the window. And I’d be going through the house, turning off lights and checking on everybody, and I’d find the two of you curled up like lambs. So I’d scoop him up and carry him home to his mom.”
“You did?” I asked. “I don’t remember any of that.”
“Well,” my dad said. “You were asleep.”
“What were you doing checking on me?”
“What do you mean?” my dad asked. “I checked on everybody every night. And I made sure the doors were locked—and the cars, too.”
“But why?”
“Why?” my dad asked, looking at me like I was crazy. “Because I’m the dad.”
Wow. “Does Mom know about this?”
My dad thought about it. “I don’t know. I guess she was usually asleep by then.”
“You should tell her.”
“Why?” my dad asked.
“Because you’ve really got to start taking more credit for things.”
My dad shook his head, like that really wasn’t his way.
To make my point, I asked, “How’s your second chance going?”
My dad sighed. “I don’t know. When your mom first fell for me, I was younger and better looking. Not sure why she’d want to hang on to this craggy old face now.”
“You don’t have to make her fall in love with you,” I said. “You just have to remind her that she already did.”
