AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Everett
Everything else fades to the background when I see Owen. He’s on the floor, playing with dinosaurs. Cormac was right. He looks just like me at his age. He hardly even glances up until we’re close. Must feel safe here. Good. But when he does look up, his grin stops the world.
A cheery, “Hi!” is the first word out of my son.
My son.
I have no words, but thankfully, Aria steps in. She tells him, “This is my friend Everett. Everett, this is Owen.”
“Nice to meet you, Everett. Do you want to play dinosaur Lord of the Rings?”
I turn to Aria for permission, and she smiles and nods. “I’d like that.”
He pats the carpet beside him, so I sit cross-legged there. The living room is on the small side, so I don’t want to take up too much playing space. I feel too big, like I might accidentally crush him. But somehow, I also feel small. Overwhelmed. Confounded.
Utterly pointless.
Here he is, this whole other human, and I’m just…the guy who should have been here years ago. He doesn’t need me. What was I thinking? If I—"
“You can be the t-rex, if you want.”
I gulp and nod. “Sounds good. What does the t-rex do?”
“Well,” he says, as if he’s about to launch into a long story, “the t-rex is the trolls that bang on the gates.”
I frown and glance up to Aria, who is still standing and watching us. “I’m new to dinosaurs, but the t in t-rex doesn’t stand for troll, right?”
She laughs. “Ask the expert. I’ll get some cocoa for you.” With that, she leaves.
I’m alone with my son and I’ve never felt more terrified. What if I break him? What if I’m carrying some disease that is not a big deal for adults but really hurts kids? Am I a bad person for wishing she were back, supervising? It’s not that I don’t want to be able to see him alone—in the future—but right now, I’m too new, too freaked out. What if—"
“It doesn’t stand for troll,” he explains, “but when I do Lord of the Rings with dinosaurs, they’re the only ones tall enough to be the trolls.”
“Oh. That makes sense. Okay, so I’m a troll. Where’s the gate to bang on?”
He points to a small wall made of those odd fat Lego blocks meant for little kids. On one side is a group of smaller dinosaurs huddled together. “You gotta bash it down.”
“But you built that wall, right? Seems mean.”
He giggles. “That’s how the movie goes.”
I would have thought Lord of the Rings too much for someone his age. But what do I know? I want to run around the condo and cover every pointy thing with foam padding, but obviously, it’s not needed. Aria would have done it.
T-rex in hand, I use him to bash the wall down. “Like that?”
“Yeah, but you gotta roar when you do it. Like the movie.”
So, I put the wall back together, and as I bash it a second time, I let out a subdued roar so I don’t scare Aria in the other room. Owen claps and laughs, and in that moment, I’m not afraid anymore. Just elated.
He grins. “You’re better at that than Mommy.”
“Thanks, kiddo,” she says as she delivers me a cup of hot cocoa, then sits on the nearby sofa. “I’m out of the room for ten minutes, and this is what I get?”
“Thanks for the cocoa.” I take a grateful sip, then turn to Owen. “And don’t be too hard on her, Owen. I bash things down for a living.”
“That’s a job?”
“Not really. I mean, demolition kind of makes that a job, but I’m a smokejumper. It’s a firefighter for forests.”
