Chapter 3 - Finding Infinity
“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.” – A.A. Milne
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On a Friday, Brooke pulled baked potatoes out of the oven when Mom walked in. “Hey, it smells so yummy in here, and the oven’s keeping the place cozy and warm.”
Brooke pretended to shiver. “There might be a chance of snow tonight. We haven’t had any in these parts for ages.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” Mom said.
Nathan gathered sour cream, butter, bacon, and chives, while I retrieved the reheated leftover chili from the microwave.
“So, Grace, how was your day?” Brooke asked.
“Same old childcare politics. She doesn’t get a fair turn on the computer, and he is always being mean to the other kids, blah, blah.”
“What do their parents have to say?”
“The parents? I was talking about the parents.”
They erupted into laughter. I grinned a little, recalling how some parents would complain to Mom when I helped at the childcare.
At Nathan’s end of the table, he was poking at his food and texting his girlfriend. What did he see in Monika? After a few months of high school, I heard some rumors about her and possible problems with drugs.
At least, if they were just texting, he was probably safe, so I didn’t say anything to Brooke or Mom.
“It’s a Friday night, so my shift may be longer. That gives you more time to finish up your schoolwork,” Mom suggested.
I lifted my head with a toothy grin. “Already done for tonight.”
“Being a freshman’s too easy for ya,” Brooke teased.
“I had some help from Roni during study hall,” I clarified.
Mom’s face beamed with pride because of my progress during my first year of high school. Though truthfully, I felt I was barely scraping by.
Brooke gave me a wink. She quizzed me about the social scene, especially any cute girls of interest, but I couldn't care less.
Mom trusted Brooke and Nathan enough with my real age, and that I was two years behind. Yet, she warned me to be cautious with my social life for our safety, as well as theirs.
“So, what are you and Nathan going to do?” Mom glanced at me, but Nathan didn’t bother to look up.
“Nathan has an extra load this weekend. The air filters need to be replaced, and they’re hard to get at; I was going to give it a try. Some of these chairs feel like their legs are loose. And Brooke always complains that the hot water doesn’t last. The heater probably needs to be flushed.”
Brooke flashed a cheesy grin. “How about we play Scrabble instead?”
“Shouldn’t I do those other things first?”
She leaned forward, and her grin widened even further. “We don’t need any hot water, and we can use the coffee table in the living room.”
Clearly, saying “No” to Brooke wasn’t an option. I hated word games. I’m terrible at them. If she’d ask me to do anything with a screwdriver, I’d be happy.
“I suppose so.”
She smiled. “We’ll have a lot of fun!”
Mom sighed as she stood up to leave. “You two better stay out of trouble.”
Brooke set up the Scrabble board. “Have you played this before?”
“Looks like you put the blocks with letters in the squares, right?”
“Yes, but you have to make words. And you score points by …”
When she said, “Make words,” my mind went blank, and the rest of the explanation didn’t stick.
“Let’s start, you’ll catch on. You’re a smart guy.”
After a few turns, I became confused and tried to spell a word using the letters I had.
Brooke read it. “junkle? What kinda stupid word is that?”
Now she knew how stupid I was and said it. My face grew warm, and I tried to hide it. I didn’t know whether to crawl behind the couch or lash out at her for calling me stupid. Looking at her, she was smirking and holding back a giggle. My arms shook as I tried to keep my emotions bottled up.
She gave me a quirky grin. “Is that a word Roni taught you?”
“What? No… She’s a study partner and not even…”
“Not what? Cute? Pretty?”
“She’s young. Okay.” I didn’t know how many times I had to wave my hands to get Brooke to drop Roni.
“You’re sixteen. She might be…”
“Seventeen. I’m seventeen.”
“Since when? Why didn’t you invite us to your birthday party?”
“It’s been Mom and me. I never really had one.” Mom never wanted anyone to know my actual age, but I couldn’t explain that.
“Aren’t we your friends?” Brooke asked.
My eyes shifted between her and Nathan in the kitchen, and I shrugged. “Mom said …”
Brooke must’ve sensed my frustration and began talking sweetly. “Hey, Big Guy, why don’t we play something else?”
Before I could agree, she started playing some music on her phone. As we put away the game, her eyes lit up. “Uno! I bet you know that game.”
“Yeah, Mom and I used to play it all the time.” I was relieved that I only had to match numbers and colors and not strain my brain with word games.
“Uno!” I declared in triumph. After several hands, I was killing her in this game.
Tossing down her cards, she yielded. “I fold to the master of Uno.”
I stood tall in my victory, flexing my muscles. I wanted to show her I wasn't stupid, but it came off like I was a smartass. The song in the background ended, and one of my favorite songs came on. Brooke reached over for her iPhone and skipped it.
“What did you do that for? I love that one.”
“No one listens to Bryan Adams anymore.”
“Maybe I do.”
“Nope, not now.” Brooke grinned.
I crossed my arms and pouted on the couch.
“Okay.” She relented and went back to it, starting to sing “Summer of '69.” I stood up and did my best air guitar impression, and Brooke cheered me on.
As the song ended, she held up her phone. “Pick out another one.”
I didn’t want to make this all about me. “What about one of yours?”
Brooke then launched into a song and dance of Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like a Woman,” which looked like something she had done dozens of times before and glowed with every kick and swing of her hips, and “Oh, oh, oh.” She tried to pull me up to dance with her, but I tumbled back on the couch, laughing.
When the song ended, she sat beside me with a contented face. “My mom and I would sing and dance together. She loved that one.”
“Bryan Adams was Mom’s favorite. Well, probably still is.”
“Grace going for someone like him makes sense. But what about you, Jake? What songs do you like?”
We spent the next hour searching for music on YouTube and compiling a list of our favs. She tried to get me to sing along, but I felt I wasn’t that good. She pulled me off the couch to dance along with her.
Then I heard Nathan calling me from the kitchen.
“Wait a second.” I got up while she sat, as if she were sulking.
“What’s up, Nathan?”
“I finished reviewing your history essay. This might be an opportune time to review it while you wait for your mom.”
I looked over at Brooke, who was idly browsing through TV channels. “Okay, but can we make it the quick version?”
He sighed and started hitting the highlights, but my mind was far from schoolwork. He had been great at helping me, but now, nothing was sticking.
When he was done, I stood up. “If that’s all, then thanks.”
Returning to the couch, I sat beside Brooke to see what she was doing.
“How about we watch a movie?” she suggested.
I moved to a comfortable position. “Sounds good. What do you want to watch?”
“How about The Princess Bride?”
“Sounds like a dumb romantic movie.”
Her jaw dropped in shock, and a flame lit behind her eyes. “What! My mom and I watched it all the time.”
Defeated, I sank onto the couch. “Okay. Go ahead.”
Brooke paused for a moment, and her eyes softened. “What did you watch when you were a kid?”
“Mom and I never had much. She always rented furnished apartments, and not all of them had TVs, so we watched when we had one.” I lifted my head, remembering. “When I was a kid, I remember watching Toy Story all the time.”
She asked, “How about Toy Story 2?”
“I never got the chance.”
“How about now?”
The idea excited me, which was evident on my face.
“Okay, it’s settled.” She quickly found it.
“What about the popcorn?” I asked and went to the kitchen.
When I was little, Mom took us to an actual movie theater. The large screen and sound filled the room, and we shared a huge bucket of savory popcorn.
Brooke and I watched while munching on the popcorn, which was almost as tasty as the popcorn at the theater. We laughed. I was on the edge of my seat with excitement as the action unfolded.
At the end of the movie, Brooke turned to me. “Was it worth watching the second one? Do you think they would have enjoyed it, too?”
“Oh yeah! They…” I stopped when I realized what I was saying.
Almost as if she were accusing me, Brooke said, “I knew it!” You watched the first movie with those kids in the childcare center. That’s why you watched it over and over again.”
I looked at her in wonder. “You were listening to me then?” When she was depressed, she was so wrapped up in herself that I thought she wasn’t actually listening.
“Of course, you’re my friend. What’s important to you is important to me.”
Just then, Mom came into the house. Brooke jumped from the couch, all giggly and excited. “Grace. Guess what? It’s Jake’s birthday.”
“Oh?” Mom gave her a curious look. “Brooke, what have you been drinking?”
She broke into hysterical laughter. Mom cracked a little smile and winked at me. “Okay, Brooke, what was it? And do you have any left?”
Brooke was almost on the floor laughing.
I said discreetly to Mom. “She wasn’t drinking.”
Mom blew out a dismissive breath. “Of course not, she’s only twenty.”
After Brooke settled down, she said, “We should celebrate Jake’s birthday since y’all didn’t bother to tell me. I have some ice cream!” With that, she rushed into the kitchen.
Nathan cleared his books from the table and headed to his room without saying a word.
We enjoyed our dessert as Brooke chronicled our evening, sharing laughs between us. “We tried learning some new dance moves. This big guy was like some dancing maniac.”
“You’re the maniac. I kept tripping over my feet.”
She nearly fell out of her chair with laughter. I had to suppress mine because of how crazy she was. Finally, she stopped, and I glanced at Mom, seeing her mask her wide grin with another bite of ice cream.
Brooke asked Mom, “So, Grace, Jake told me you have a thing for Bryan Adams?”
A hint of playfulness spread across her mouth as she spoke. “Hell, yes. Back in the day, I used to love watching him sing in those tight jeans.”
Brooke's jaw dropped as she tried to cover my ears. “Grace! Talking like that in front of your son?”
Mom shook her head. “I’m open and honest with Jake. I doubt anything I say shocks him. But it might embarrass him.”
With my face turning red, I focused on the ice cream and tried to ignore them.
Finally, Brooke said something that caught my attention: “Those kids Jake watched over at the childcare center, they must have really liked him.”
Mom patted me on the back. “They all looked up to him as if he were their big brother.”
Brooke told Mom about watching Toy Story 2 because I had mentioned I watched Toy Story with the kids several times.
“That was one of their favorites,” Mom explained. “But Jake used it as a distraction to find the ones that were hiding. He spent most of his time with a girl who was eight years old. She loved to draw, and he would watch and interact with her. She ate up his attention.”
Glancing to the side, I saw Brooke give me a playful smile. I wasn’t going to hear the end of that.
“You must have really loved those kids,” Brooke said with a twinkle in her eye.
How could I honestly say how I felt? Those were the best times in my life. Turning to her, I said, “I loved those days and those kids. But they’re gone. They aren’t little kids anymore. They don’t need me.”
“You did the best you could with those kids. They’ll turn out okay,” Mom said.
“You’ll be okay, too,” Brooke said cheerfully.
“Why? How could you know that?” I asked.
Brooke didn’t even know the hell my dad put us through.
She dipped her finger in the melted ice cream and swiped it on the tip of my nose. “Because you’ve got me to keep you company to infinity and beyond.”