Page 31 of Requiem

“Come in!” he calls from inside.

We do.

“Hey, Joe, have you got a sec? My family decided to surprise me tonight and they’d like to meet you.”

He smiles broadly. Joe loves to play host.

“Hello! I’m Joe Dancy. I play violin.”

“We noticed!” Aunt Elise replies enthusiastically. They make their introductions and I inch closer to the door.

“Joe, I was just telling my mom how we like to get out of here fast after a concert. And that it’s entirely possible the rest of the group has already …”

My sentence is interrupted by a high-pitched shriek from the hallway. It’s followed by a small, mischievous laugh. That is followed by the sound of someone running in heels. There isn’t even time to close the door before the tiny, redheaded tornado comes flying in and crashes into my legs.

“Unca!”

“Oh, my! Who’s this?” my mother coos, slipping into kindergarten teacher mode.

Before I can say anything, she’s squatting down to see him at eye level as he clings to my leg like a koala bear in a eucalyptus tree. He’s being coy, hiding his face from her. Thankfully. Now, if I can just get him to stay this way … It’s a possibility … until I hear Julia.

“David Matthew Ayers! You come back here this instant! You know better than to run away from mommy!” she’s chiding him before she’s even in the room with me. And with her son. And my mother. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck!

I watch helplessly as the rest of it unfolds in slow motion. David turns around at the sound of Julia’s voice, but ends up running right into my mother, who is still squatting down. Instinctively, she scoops him up, and starts to return the wayward toddler to his mother. Please, God. Please. Please. Please.

But apparently God isn’t taking requests tonight. At least, not from me.

Julia doesn’t realize who it is that’s holding her child. She’s not the least bit alarmed by the middle-aged woman with the kind eyes and the teacherly voice. Why should she be? David throws back his head and giggles as my mother stands up with him in her arms, bouncing him the whole way. It isn’t until she is fully upright again that I see the briefest flicker of recognition cross her face.

“Unca!” David cries and stretches his arms toward me. He’s squirming so hard to get to me that my mother passes him my way before he can jump right out of her hands. “Unca!” he repeats, patting the sides of my face with his hands. And then he twists around, so that he and I are both facing the same way, looking at my mother, side by side.

A dark cloud passes across my mother’s face, and her eyes turn hard and withering. Oh, shit. I know this expression well, but this is the first time it’s ever been leveled at me. This is the stare she saves for my brother.

The chill that settles on the room is so palpable that Joe decides this would be a good time to excuse himself. He holds out his arms toward David and puts a big smile on his face for the boy.

“Hey, David, buddy! Let’s go find Nata!”

“Nata!” David parrots, blissfully unaware of the Pandora’s Box he’s just kicked open with his tiny high top sneakers.

“Really, Brett?” Mom hisses once they’ve gone. “Is that what you were trying to keep us from seeing?” she demands, pointing to the door through which Joe and David have just left.

“I’m sorry,” Julia breaks in quietly, “but I don’t think I understand what’s happening here.”

“Julia, this is …”

“I’m his mother,” my mother cuts back in with an off-handed gesture towards me.

Julia is frowning, her lips parted in a questioning ‘O’. When it dawns on her what has just happened, her eyebrows shoot up into an alarmed arch.

“And, if I’m not mistaken,” my mother continues, “that little boy’s grandmother.”

She’s staring at me, Julia’s staring at her and I’m staring at Julia.

“Does Maggie know?”

“Does Maggie know what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Brett. You’re engaged to be married. Does your fiancée know you have a child with another woman? A woman who you’re clearly still involved with?”