Neotenous continued
Oscar was full of anticipation as he left work. He shot Esther a text letting her know he was on his way home.
He didn’t pull in his drive. He pulled into hers. Could it someday be theirs? He sat in his SUV for a minute thinking about that. Could her home really be theirs? That thought excited him.
Stepping out of his SUV, he could smell food. His stomach immediately started to growl. Instead of going inside, he went around back. The back porch was decorated with vines, flowers, and balloons.
She walked out carrying a tray. It was as if he was in a trance. “You trickster you.” She giggled.
When she touched his face, was he about to cry?
At first his voice cracked, “I.” He tried again, “I thought we celebrated my birthday?”
“We did.”
“What’s all this?”
“Second birthday.”
“Why?” His mind was going in a thousand different directions.
“Why not?”
She led him onto the porch. “What is that smell?”
They heard a knock, it was Chet and Bell.
“Two birthday parties,” Belle said playfully.
“I know. Right.” Esther winked. “To answer your question, that smell is pizza dough.” She lifted the lid of the grill showing off 4 individual sized pizza doughs.
“WHAT?” Chet hissed. “No way did you grill a pizza. How?”
“It’s super simple. Heat your grill to 350 degrees. When it’s hot, use tongs to cover your grilling surface with oil by dipping a paper towel or cloth in oil.” She plated the blank pizza dough as she talked. “This has been on for about 15 minutes. Not frozen. Decorate.” She pointed at the table, covered with toppings. “Return to grill for another 15 minutes and eat.”
As the friends sat down to eat, Chet moaned “these are the best.”
Oscar blushed.
“What’s for dessert?” Bell giggled.
“Cup cakes and frozen yogurt.”
Chet pointed at Oscar, “you are going to spoil this one.”
“Dinner was the adult birthday party. Tonight,” she just laughed. They sat on the porch, eating and talking. When day started giving way to night, Esther announced “look around my friends, what do you see?”
Belle spoke, “it’s getting dark.”
She just smiled. No one said anything as they watched the night advancing pushing the day away. The sky filled with bright shades of pink, orange, red and purple.
“Fireflies,” Oscar breathed.
“Fireflies.” She had 4 jars and 4 nets, “we are going to catch fireflies.”
After hours of playing, they lay in the dew covered grass, out of breath but feeling amazing.
“You know,” Belle panted. “Whoo, I’ve never done that. I watched people do it in the movies.”
“I did it once. But I was so mean, I pulled off their tails and counted the seconds to see how long it took for the light to go out.” Chet remarked sadly. Chet rolled over on his belly, “what about you?” He was looking right at Esther.
Everyone took their lead from Chet and rolled over.
“Like Bell, I have watched people do it on t.v. but this is a first for me too.”
Oscar didn’t speak, he was lost. Esther noticed.
After Chet and Bell left, Oscar and Esther sat under the tree watching the fireflies dance. She, cradled in his arms.
“I think I’ve figured out why the word neotenous bothered me so much.”
“Care to share,” she asked.
“Remember me telling you I was the work horse? The dog?”
“Yes.”
“I can remember on one hand the number of times I played for the sake of playing. I got toys. But being a curious little boy, I wanted to know how the toys worked more than I wanted to play with them. When I took a toy apart; before I ever got to put it back together, mom would throw them in the fire. Make me watch them burn and lecture me about the value of money.”
“Where was your dad?”
He scoffed, “the worst beating I ever got, Oat broke a lamp. I got it put back together all except replacing the light bulb. Dad wanted to know where I was going with that? Before I could open my mouth, Oat pointed at me and said, ‘he broke’. Dad drug me by an ear, through the house, took his hand, rebroke the lamp.” Oscar stopped, kissed Esther on top of the head before laying his head on hers. “I couldn’t sit down for days.”
“That was child abuse.”
“That was punishment.”
She rose up to face him, “no that was abuse.”
“I don’t think Oat ever owned up to breaking that lamp.”
“How old were you?”
“12, maybe 13.”
“Why didn’t you run away?”
“And go where?”
“Your aunt and uncle.”
“You finally give up. And I did. Any toy I got, I gave to Oat.” Esther didn’t know what to say. “I had forgotten about that lamp.”
“When your brother was born, that was an extra mouth to feed and it became your burden to bear?”
“Pretty much.” He never looked up from the ground.
“There were no other kids to play with?”
“No. Ever since kindergarten, Chet has pulled me along.”
“Did you play at school?”
“Only when Chet was around. I was always too afraid I’d break something and my parents would have to pay for it.” He took a deep breath, “Chet and I were in two plays. One when we were in the 4th or 5th grade. Mom didn’t come watch because Oat was acting up. Heaven forbid dad watch the play or watch Oat for that matter. Same thing happened with the play I was in in high school. They didn’t watch me graduate, Oat was pitching a fit.”
She raised his chin, he was crying. “I’m sorry.”
He hugged her up. “Don’t stop being neotenous.”
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