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Carmen pulled a chair out as she said hello to him and took a seat so she was slightly facing away from him. “Hi, Harley. I hear you have had a pretty exciting day.”
“Yeah, I got to meet my dad, and I got to see where he works and sleeps, and then Candy brought me over here in her car. It’s really big, but she said she’s not rich. Are you?”
Carmen pushed a strand of long blond hair back from her face. “No, I’m not.”
“That’s okay. I’m not either.” Harley started to get closer to her as he spoke, and she didn’t move, just kept her attention on him as he approached. He continued to tell her the rest of the things he had done, like learning about washing his hands and finally watching television, and he finished up with how he was watching us kiss in the kitchen.
“Wow, you sure have done a lot today,” Carmen said and nailed her sister with a shocked look. “And he’s not the only one.” As she looked away, she winked at me and then let her eyes drift down my body as if she were checking me out. A second later, her attention was back on Harley.
“Harley, how would you like to come into the living room with me and talk for a little while, and we can play some games. Would you like to do that with me?”
“What about my dad?”
“Your dad and Candy are going to stay right here in the kitchen. You’ll still be able to see them, but they have some things to talk about, and I’d love it if you could keep me company and play with me.”
“Okay.” He shot off toward the living room. “Come on. I’ll show you the TV!”
She stood and stepped closer to me, lowering her voice. “I’m going to ask Harley a lot of questions. If you guys sit in here, you can hear most of it. If you want me to stop at any time, you give me a signal, and I will, but I would appreciate it if you stayed in here and let us talk alone.”
“Absolutely.”
“I know what Candy told me, but I’m going to try to go back with him as far as I can.”
“Do you want a glass of water?” Candy asked her.
“That would be great, and one for him. He looks like he could use some hydration.”
I watched Carmen collect the glasses of water and head into the living room. Candy touched my arm and went to the fridge, where she pulled out two beers and brought them to the table.
The two of us sat there and listened as they began to talk, and Carmen pulled out a toy for him to focus his attention on. Unlike most boys who wanted to go from one thing to another, he was content to stick to the first toy, which was a puzzle of some kind.
Carmen started by asking questions about where he lived, and she wanted him to tell her all about his home. Candy and I listened, occasionally glancing at one another to confirm that we had heard the same horrible conditions described.
A few minutes later, she asked him about what he ate, and he said he only ever ate hot dogs because that’s what he knew how to cook. Sometimes he ate cereal from the box, and once in a while, his mother would give him a little package of cookies or chips.
I thought about all the meals I had consumed where I stuffed myself to the point of feeling sick. I felt even sicker now.
Carmen eventually switched conversations and began talking about his mother. He described a woman who read him stories, although he only had three books, and someone who told him stories every day about how awesome his father was and how he would meet him one day soon.
“Harley, did your mom tell you that she was sick?”
“Yeah, she had boobie cancer.”
Candy and I snickered at the terminology he used as Carmen continued. “I’m sorry that she was sick. Did she go to the doctor?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. She was usually home. She went out once in a while, but most of the time she was home with me.”
“If she didn’t go out, how did you get food?”
“One of her boyfriends would bring it to us.”
“She had more than one boyfriend?”
I saw him nod. “Yeah, she had lots of them.” He continued explaining what he had told us earlier about sitting in the corner and singing.
“Wow, that was a good thing to do.”
“I didn’t do it all the time. Sometimes I could hear them in the room.”
