R38: Touch
Title: Touch
Characters: Giovanni, Silver, Pearl
POV: Silver
Notes: Gee. This starts out as comic and humorous but then I dunno, it just changes!
Bad things happen to good people. Trust me, I should know. I was doing my homework on the kitchen table like a good student, and even studying extra, when Father and Ma’m burst into the room, and without warning:
“I think your mother and I should get to know your friends and their parents!” he declares in the tones of announcing an important economic policy.
“He saw that commercial on TV when it asks you to name four MTV music videos and then name four of your kid’s friends,” Ma’m explains, then makes a rude hand gesture behind his back. “Actually he got as far as ‘Well, I Have No Idea’ with the music videos, but that’s not the point.”
Oh my God. I have to be having the worst nightmare ever. No. No. No. Maybe he’s joking? Where’s the punchline? I look up and grin shakily. “Hi Father, Ma’m.”
Father’s grinning like an Olympic torchbearer. “I shall be more involved with your personal life!”
Oh my God- he’s already involved enough to know why I always pick my scabs and scrapes! “No-“
But he probably thinks we’re too delighted to realize it’s real. He comes around the table and puts an arm around my shoulders. “Why don’t you introduce us and we can get to know your friends and their respective families or legal guardians better? We shall know what kind of people you hang up with!”
No- he can’t be- oh no, I think he’s serious! “But you already know Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue, don’t you? I mean… Well, they spent like two years trying to bring you down and sabotage all your plans for world domination before Red scarringly humiliated you twice, right? And you fought a bit alongside Yellow?”
I’m glad he’s too caught up in his own enthusiasm to take in what I just said. “Yes, I do know Red. I have met him quite a few times, but I have only met your other friends a few times! And I need to thank Green personally, for taking care of you when-“ His smile cracks straight in half.
Ma’m’s talons dig into my back. “We’ll go get us a quart of ice cream,” she calls behind us. For a moment the late afternoon sunlight fills the room and outlines his bent frame in a sort of nest. He seems so alone and vulnerable that I want to reach out to him, but soon my view disappears behind a wall.
“Don’t mind him. He still feels a bit downright horrible for everything that’s happened since you were two.” She continues dragging me through the hallway as she explains. “The close friends of his family are his friends too. Where he comes from, family extends to encompass close friends too, you know. The family’s the basic unit, kiddo. It’s where you place your trust, your loyalty, and that’s important where the whole world’s your enemy. You aren’t getting what he’s doing, do you?”
“Oh my God, he’s adopting-“
She has only one eye, but her glare’s like a slap in the face. “It’s a really big thing. Really big thing. He’s saying that he’s welcoming your friends, no matter how much they’ve fought him in the past, because they’re your friends, well, because of you.” She manhandles me into the garage and pulls three cartons of ice cream and a bunch of spoons from the miniature fridge. “Basically, it’s like… What did you say? It’s like he’s adopting them. Putting his trust into them. Trust is a big thing, kiddo, you know how your father and I work… Well, he’s willing to make it work. For you, kid. I know that the culture here’s a bit different, and you guys are throwing your friendships and trust around so casually, but you know that that’s now how he does it. As far as I know, he trusts me, and he trusts you, and he trusts nobody else. Kiddo, trust over on this side of the generation is like… Like marriage. He’ll do that for you. He loves you, you know.”
For better or for worse. For better or for worse. I break and can’t even muster up any spunk to tell her that whole thing about marriage was a really bad mental image. I was ready to go to war, but now…
“Go ahead and get teary-eyed, kiddo. I won’t tell anyone.” She pats me on the back and I know she means it.
I don’t know how long we sit in the garage, taking bites out of the ice cream. I tell her about my friends. How I was playing this balancing act between them and Father. How the seeds he’d long sown in the past have sprouted for me in ways neither of us ever intended. How I love him, even though I don’t know what to do. And how I’m afraid that the sheer criminal nature coming from both sides of my parentage is too much for me to ever overcome. I don’t know why I’m telling her, but I keep talking. I can’t stop. I hate spilling out to anyone and I feel awfully naked in front of her, telling her all this. It feels like betraying myself. I can’t stop. But even when I’m struggling over words, she nods, and I get the feeling she’s known it before even me. The sun is setting through the window panels when she hauls me up by the armpits.
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s make sure your old daddy’s not up to anything while we were gone.” It was only later that I noticed she had given me a carton of her favorite flavor. Normally she guards it like a grizzly bear in heat.
When we go back into the house, I walk quietly. There’s a sort of stillness in the house. All the lights are off, and in the autumn evening, the rooms are all shades of blue. The old grandfather clock near the stairs slowly ticks and tocks out the time. Every note is a vibration in the silence. We step in through the descending twilight and head for the kitchen.
The entire kitchen is glowing golden and the last shadows fall away as we enter just as he is drying off his hands on a dishtowel. Behind him, a few pans and bowls leaned on the drying rack, still wet. He turns around when I clear my throat, and his whole face crinkles into a warm smile and he comes over to us.
He bends down and envelops both of us in a hug that smells faintly of parsley and soap.
“I made dinner,” he says, his chin pressed against my head. I hesitate for a moment, then return the hug. He feels solid and ageless, like the trunk of a redwood or the face of a mountain. Despite myself, I think, everything’s gonna be all right.
I catch Ma’m’s faint smile from where she crouches next to him.
“Um. I’ll go ask my friends when they’re free. It'll be fun if we all meet up, right?”