Chapter 9
It rained on the morning of Eli’s party.
I woke to a message from Rochelle.
The park tables will be soaked. The community center near my house has a room open. I checked. Can we move it there?
I called the center to confirm, then told her yes. We sent the new address to the guests. For once, a change of plans did not feel like the start of a fight.
Maya and I arrived early with the food. Rochelle was carrying a cake through the door. Anita followed with a bag of paper plates and immediately began telling us where the tables should go.
Eli ran between us wearing a paper crown.
“Dad, look! Mom got blue frosting.”
“I see that. Has she seen what I brought?”
He shook his head.
I showed him the larger bridge kit. His eyes widened.
“Can we build it here?”
“We can start it. Your friends are coming in twenty minutes.”
He set the box on a table where everyone could see it.
For two hours, the room was full of children, spilled juice, and loud instructions for a game nobody seemed to understand. Rochelle and Maya handed out food together. Anita took photographs. I watched Eli laugh without checking our faces to see whether either parent was hurt.
That was the gift I wanted most for him.
Near the end, I saw Rochelle standing alone beside the cake table. She was watching Maya help Eli find a missing game piece. I went over.
“You okay?” I asked.
“She’s good with him.”
“She is.”
“I used to hear that as a threat.”
I didn’t answer for her.
Rochelle took a breath. “He knows I’m his mom. I can see it when he comes to me. I don’t know why I was so afraid.”
“You were having a hard time,” I said.
“That explains it. It doesn’t make those missed weekends fair.”
“No.”
She nodded. “I’m going to keep my promise to him.”
After the party, we cleaned the room together. Eli fell asleep in my truck on the way to our weekend. The bridge kit rested beside him.
At home, I carried him inside. He woke enough to ask whether his mother got home safely.
“I’ll check,” I said.
Rochelle answered my message quickly. She and Anita were home.
When I told Eli, he relaxed and went back to sleep.
The next morning, he asked about the day he had run out of Rochelle’s house with one shoe.
“Do you remember it?” I asked.
“Yes. I thought if you saw me, you’d stay.”
I set down the bridge piece I was holding.
“I was there to see you. When I drove home, I was already planning to come back.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I know. I wish we’d told you more clearly.”
He fitted a blue support into place.
“Mom says she shouldn’t have made me worry.”
“She told me that, too.”
“Are you still mad at her?”
“Sometimes I think about what happened and I feel angry. We’re working together better now.”
Eli looked relieved that I had told the truth.
“I’m glad,” he said. “I like my birthday.”
“So do I.”
We built until lunchtime. Maya came home from the store with snacks and asked Eli to show her the new supports. He gave her a serious explanation, pointing to each joint.
On Sunday, the exchange was at the family center as usual. The staff member checked us in and smiled when Eli carried the unfinished bridge between his arms.
“I’m taking it to Mom’s,” he told me. “I’ll work on it there, then bring it back.”
“That sounds good.”
Rochelle held the door while he went inside. She looked at the bridge.
“I know a little about blue frosting,” she said. “I know nothing about that.”
“He’ll teach you,” I replied.
Eli hugged me. “Tuesday?”
“Tuesday.”
He took Rochelle’s hand. Neither of us had to remind him where he was going or whether I would call.
On my drive home, Priya called with an update about the last paperwork from our case. The makeup weekends had been completed. Rochelle had kept to the schedule for months and paid the fees under the court’s plan. There was nothing further I needed to file.
I thanked her.
“The order will still be there if you need it,” she said.
“I hope we won’t.”
“So do I.”
May you like
When I got home, I took Eli’s first bridge down from the shelf. Its repaired support was still visible. I ran a finger over the join, then set it back.
It had survived more handling than the instructions expected.
