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Blue streaked past, stick in his mouth. Harris followed but stopped short when something behind them caught his eye. His eyes grew large and a grin lit up his face. “Uncle Noah!” he hollered. He took off toward home plate. Josie and Luke turned to see Noah walking onto the diamond, a coffee in hand. Harris slammed into him, hugging his leg with both hands. Noah kept walking with Harris attached to him.
Luke smiled at Josie. “You should go.”
Josie nodded and jogged over to Noah. He handed her the coffee and gave Luke a mock salute. “Whose idea was it again to take a walk in February?”
Josie sipped the coffee. “We’re walking through the park to the rec center for a basketball game,” she said. “That hardly counts as a walk.”
Harris tried to climb up Noah’s body. Noah grabbed him under his armpits, lifting him easily and throwing him over his shoulder. Harris’s body was arrow-straight across Noah’s shoulder, his head and arms extended outward over Noah’s back, legs pointed the other way. Noah held onto Harris’s legs and spun him around, faster and faster. Harris giggled and shouted with joy.
Josie said, “Please stop. You’re going to get dizzy and drop him.”
“No, I’m not,” Noah said with complete confidence. Somehow, without even putting Harris down, he managed to position the boy so that he was seated on the back of Noah’s neck, his hands in Noah’s thick, dark hair. Noah held onto his thin legs like they were backpack straps.
They waved to Luke as they left the field and headed to the rec center. Noah said, “They seem okay.”
Josie was still worried about Luke, but the last few times she’d seen him and Blue, they did seem fine.
At the rec center, Noah lowered Harris to the ground, but not before performing more acrobatics that made Harris laugh with delight and Josie cringe. They saw him to the locker room and then went to take their seats. From the bottom of the bleachers, Jasmine Toselli waved a greeting and then turned back to watch Sam do practice drills.
“It doesn’t get better than this, does it?” said Noah.
Josie took another sip of her coffee. “What’s that?”
Noah smiled as Harris emerged from the locker room in his uniform and picked up a basketball. “Normalcy,” he said.
* * *
