Page 5 of But For You

Sam grunted and looked up at me. “How come I didn’t get invited to the movies?”

“First”—I smiled at him—“the Chipmunks give you hives, and secondly, won’t you be fishing with Pat and Chaz that Saturday?”

“What Saturday are we talking about?”

“We’re leaving tomorrow for Phoenix, for the reunion, and we’ll come home Monday morning, on Labor Day.”

“Yes, I know this.”

“Okay, so then I’m talking about not this coming Saturday since we’ll be out of town, but the one after that.”

“Oh, so that’s right, then.” He smiled brightly. “I’ll be fishing. Sorry I won’t make the movie, babe.”

“Liar,” I said flatly.

He cackled.

But it was going to be fun. I was going with my two kids; my buddy Evan was bringing his sons, Bryce and Seth; and Dylan was schlepping her two kids—her son, Micah, who was her oldest and a year younger than Kola, and Mabel, her daughter, who was a year older than Hannah. It was unfortunate that they had made another Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, but all the kids were dying to see it, so we were making a day of it. I was still waiting to hear from Aja to see if she was coming along as well. I knew that Robert, who was the same age as Hannah, was just as interested in helium-fueled rodents as the rest of our kids, but Aja wasn’t, and Gentry was too young to take to a movie theater. Not to mention the fact that my sister-in-law could use a day off.

Aja, who had been in the public school realm when she first married my brother—as first a principal and then assistant superintendent of schools—had found herself unable to enact change at that level. Aja could not amend policy or allocate funds, but instead of growing bitter about what she saw happening around her—the apathy and deliberate ignorance—she decided to do something about it. In her present position as the associate dean of education at DePaul University, training and inspiring the next generation of teachers, she was preparing bright minds for the real world as well as toughening skins. She armed them and motivated them and made sure they knew she would always be a resource for them, even after they graduated. All that, plus parenting two children, being a wife, attending a myriad of social functions with her husband, and the result was a worn-out Aja Harcourt. I wanted to help lessen her load.

As I was driving back home after dropping off Kola and Hannah—they both went to the same Montessori school close to Oak Park—I called Aja from the car and offered to take her two short people off her hands that Saturday instead of having her join us.

“But Gentry is too little to go to the––”

“I’ll have Regina watch him for a couple of hours. You know she’d love to do it and she’s crazy about him.”

“Yes, she is,” she agreed. She loved my mother-in-law as much as I did.

“Just let me do this for you.”

I was immediately called a saint.

“Jory, I really need some me and Dane time.”

“How ’bout I pick Robbie and Gen up next Friday after school and keep them until Sunday morning? We’ll all meet for brunch, and you can have them back. But that’ll give you Friday night and all day Saturday. Whaddya say?”

I thought she was going to cry; she was so thankful.

“So, is that a yes?”

“Oh my God, yes, that’s a yes!”

“You’re starting to sound like me.”

“Thank you, baby.”

“What is family for?”

“But you’re the only one I trust.”

“That’s not true.” I smiled into the phone as I turned from the side street I was on into traffic on Harlem Avenue, heading for home. I went maybe ten feet before I—and everyone else on the street—came to a grinding halt.

“Yes, but since my sister, Candace, got her dream job, globetrotting around the world, and my folks fled to Florida and my brother, Alex, to Delaware, you and Sam are the only family I’ve got here.”

“You have a lot of other girlfriends,” I told her as I tried to see what the problem was around the SUV in front of me.

“I know, but I would check in with the others. I don’t need to check with you and Sam. He’ll kill anyone who comes near my kids, and you worry more than I do.”