HE DROVE TWO HOURS TO SEE HIS SON… BUT HIS EX REFUSED TO LET HIM THROUGH THE DOOR. THEN HIS SON RAN OUT SHOUTING “DADDY!” 😳

I replied through the app.

Please tell Eli I’m available until eight. If he wants a shorter call, that’s okay.

At seven forty-five, my phone rang. Eli appeared on the screen in his pajamas.

“Mom said you were waiting,” he told me.

“I was. How was your day?”

“We made a weather chart.”

He showed me a page covered in clouds. The call lasted five minutes. He yawned and said goodnight. I was glad I had waited without sending another angry message.

The next morning, Priya told me to keep recording missed calls and visits but to give Eli room for ordinary tired days, too.

“Not every short call is interference,” she said.

“I know.”

“I’m saying it because you’re frightened of losing time with him.”

She was right.

I didn’t want Eli to become a record I kept for court. I wanted to know which friend made him laugh and whether he still hated peas.

His counselor, Dr. Ellis, met with each parent separately before speaking with Eli. When I went in, she asked me what I thought he was worried about.

“That if he enjoys himself at my house, Rochelle will be hurt,” I said.

“And what do you do when he worries?”

“I tell him he can love us both.”

“That helps. Show him you mean it when the adults disappoint each other, too.”

I thought of the porch and my face when Rochelle said no. I could keep my voice calm and still let Eli see that I was furious. Dr. Ellis didn’t tell me to hide my feelings. She asked me to find another place to take them.

I started walking after difficult calls. Sometimes Maya came with me. Sometimes I called Priya. Eli got my attention when we spoke, instead of the anger I was carrying from a message.

At our next exchange, Rochelle arrived early. Eli had a school project due Monday, and she wanted him to work on it over the weekend.

“I packed the instructions,” she said.

“Thanks. We’ll make time.”

She lingered after Eli went to the bathroom.

“My hours were cut in the spring,” she said.

I wasn’t expecting that.

“I’m sorry.”

“I took extra evening shifts. My mother watches Eli when I’m at work.”

“You could have told me.”

“I know what you would have said.”

“What?”

“That he should stay with you more.”

I looked toward the hall. Eli was out of earshot.

“If he needs care while you work, we can talk about what helps him,” I said. “That doesn’t make you less his mother.”

Rochelle’s eyes filled, but she shook her head.

“You have Maya. You have the house. Every time he comes back, he talks about things you did together.”

“He tells me about you, too.”

“He doesn’t know I’m struggling.”

“We can keep it that way while we solve the adult problems.”

She took a breath. I hoped we could keep talking. Then she saw Priya’s latest notice sticking out of my folder.

“You’re still asking for makeup time.”

“Eli missed weekends with me.”

“I thought we were getting somewhere.”

“We can talk and still follow through with court.”

Her face closed again. She walked away before Eli returned.

The weekend went well until Sunday morning. Eli’s project was a poster about people who helped their town. He chose the librarian and spent an hour drawing shelves of books. Maya helped him cut paper letters while I found a photograph the librarian had sent home.

Then Eli asked, “Can I put Maya on it? She helps at the animal shelter.”

“You can choose anyone who fits the project,” I said.

He looked down at his markers.

“Mom might think I picked Maya instead of her.”

“Your mom helps people at the clinic,” I said. “You could include her, too.”

Eli’s face brightened. He drew Rochelle in blue scrubs beside Maya with a small dog. There was room for both.

At the exchange, he showed Rochelle first.

“I put you on it,” he said.

She smiled when she saw her drawing. Then she noticed Maya beside her. Her smile faded for only a second, but Eli saw it.

He folded the poster toward himself.

“I can take her off,” he offered.

Rochelle looked at him. Something shifted in her expression.