“Would you want to play with the blocks, my friend?” My call to Aiden came as he was positioned in his wheelchair close to the window. His wide smile matched the radiance in his eyes.
“Dada, blocks!” he shouted, his hands fluttered, and surrounded by laughter. I set the blocks out in front of him and watched as, with his mobility severely limited, he tried to stack them. This is the kind of thing that gives me strength. Seeing Aiden flourish lifted all of my burdens, including exhaustion, financial difficulties, and sleeplessness.
Brian dropped by one night with a six-pack. “Hey, are you still standing?”
I explained that I was doing my best. “It’s not a picnic.”
“Leaving you guys in that state, Vanessa is quite the character.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “However, she will no longer be allowed to meddle with us.”
“James, you’re just killing it. Having Aiden is a blessing.”
In an effort to persuade myself, I nodded. Lucy, a neighbor, would drop over with food and offer to keep the kids on a regular basis. Without Brian and Lucy, I was utterly unsure of how to manage anything.
Time passed—ten years. One night, Vanessa emailed me. My pulse was pounding as I stared at the screen.
“I am sorry about everything, James. See Aiden, please. A major error was my doing. I implore you.”
Fury welled up inside me. So how did she manage it? After a long period of time?
“What’s the matter, Dad?” Aiden investigated as he rolled himself inside the room.
“Absolutely nothing, my dear. Put another way, explicit content.”
I had a hard time falling asleep that night. Thinking about Vanessa reentering our lives was annoying. But I couldn’t help but wonder whether Aiden should even know who his mother was. At a little café, we met.