Prom

Saturday rolled around and Oscar couldn’t wait to see what Esther was going to wear. He had loved the little Christmas dress. She answered the door in a light green dress, matching shoes and a pale pink shawl.

“You look amazing.” He smiled.

“Thank you sir.”

He trailed his fingers around the chain of the necklace he bought that she was wearing. This pulled his attention to her small pink earrings.

She giggled, “do you recognize the dress?” A slight twirl was added to her position.

“It looks like the dress you wore at Christmas.”

“Bleach baby,” she laughed tossing him her keys. In the jeep she asked, “what does a chaperone do?”

“We just make sure the students don’t have sex, do drugs, fight, get drunk, that sort of thing.”

“Oh, I see.” She seemed nervous to him.

He pulled off to the side of the road, “honey are you okay?”

A big tear rolled down her face. He gently wiped it away. “You’re gonna think I’m being silly.”

“Try me.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever gone to a prom.”

“You didn’t go to your high school prom?”

She just shook her head no.

He leaned over and kissed her. “I know this can’t make up for high school. But I think you will enjoy tonight.”

At the gym, Oscar introduced her to a host of people from the principal to the janitor. There were ten adult chaperones there. Mostly school staff. They had chosen Frozen as their set up and Rewind as their theme song.

“Did the seniors do this?”

“No, the juniors did. Each year the juniors decorate for the senior prom. It’s like their going away gift.”

“They did an amazing job.” It looked like a winter wonderland.

Esther spent a few minutes watching Oscar as he talked with the principal. He really was handsome in his suit. His hair looked like; it hit her in that moment who his hair cut reminded her of, Hugh Jackman; his roll in Kate and Leopold. She loved playing with his hair. He glanced at her and wink. She blushed and winked back.

As the party progressed, she went outside to get some fresh air and walk around the gym. Two guys were outside arguing with each other. They didn’t even see her.

“So guys, is she worth it?”  They just stared at her. “Two nice looking young men getting ready to fight, it must be over a girl.” She smiled.

“I came here with her and this fucker says he’s dating her too.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.” He other teen shouted.

One drew back to hit the other, “gentlemen please. Ask yourselves, is she worth it?”

“What do you care?”

“I care a lot. I don’t want to see either one of you have a criminal record over a girl. I’m assuming you’re both 18. There are lot of girls out there that wouldn’t cheat on either one of you. You,” she pointed at the teen that dropped the F bomb. “Where are you going to be in a month?”

“I’ve joined the Marines.”

“Oh wow! Thank you. Soldiers are valuable assets to this country. So tell me, if you get stationed in France or Germany and a hot foreign lady catches your eye. Suzie is thousands of miles away but Gretta is in your lap. Are you going to be faithful to Suzie or is that guy that you fought with at senior prom gonna creep into your mind?”

“I never really thought about it that way.”

“How long have you known the Sheila you’re ready to get a criminal record over?”

“We’ve dated on and off all throughout high school.” Soldier boy replied.

“What about you?” She asked the other teen.

“I popped her cherry over Christmas break.”

“You’re an abrasive fellow.” Esther smiled.

The teen that was going off to be a Marine, scoffed “you can have her.”

“That’s a good choice Marine. And when you come back from your tour, soldiers make great cops.” Both teens picked up their coats taking different directions around the gym.

Winter Season

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.”

Winter Season

Finished

Testing finished on a Tuesday, which Esther thought was weird. Nothing about the school systems timing made sense to her.

Oscar laid his head on her lap as she played with his hair. “Feel better?” She asked.

“Much of that and I will be asleep.”

“You’ve had a stressful two weeks.” She corrected herself, “two and a half weeks almost.”

In no time flat, he was asleep. She continued rubbing his hair. He looked so peaceful lying in her lap. She moved from his hair to his face. She enjoyed the smoothness and warmth of his skin. After about half an hour, she eased off the couch letting him nap.

Dear God, what was she doing? What if the outcome of the thing was bad? She’d never get to hold him again. Should she go back in there and hold him until her arms ached?

She stood staring into the fridge, wondering what she could fix for dinner? But her mind kept wondering back to the subject of why she was here. Images scrambled inside her mind. Images she couldn’t control. The opened freezer air washed over her. “Dear God please, take it away.” She whispered.

She finally shut the fridge and turned to rummage through the cabinets.

Oscar was standing behind her. He looked sad. She put her arms around him as tightly as she could. “I wish you could talk to me.” He kissed the top of her head.

“It’s the same ole story. I’m scared.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“No.”

“How would you like to go to the prom?”

She moved so that she could make eye contact. “The prom?”

“I’ve been asked to chaperone. And I would be honored if you’d be my date.” He smiled.

“What do adults wear to the prom?”

“I’m just gonna wear a suit.”

“Mr. Patterson,” she smiled. “I would be honored. When is the prom?”

“Next Saturday.”

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Honestly?”

“Of course.”

“Nothing.”

“Okay,” she shrugged her shoulders.

He was shocked; she wasn’t going to fight with him about it.

Winter Season