Chapter 6
At our first family counseling session, Ava spoke before anyone else.
“I want us to stop guessing what Malik wants,” she said.
The counselor, Dr. Ellis, asked her what she meant.
“Mom thought he didn’t want to come with us. I thought he had other plans. Nobody asked him.”
Malik sat beside me, pulling at the sleeve of his hoodie.
Dr. Ellis turned to him.
“What would you have said if someone had asked?”
“I wanted to go to dinner,” he said. “I wanted to go to the movies that time too.”
Monique looked at him.
“I didn’t know about the movies.”
“You bought three tickets,” Ava said softly.
Monique pressed her hands together.
“I meant for Ava to bring a friend.”
“You told me Malik was busy,” Ava replied.
I watched Monique’s face. She seemed about to argue, but Dr. Ellis asked her to take a moment.
“I was afraid Ava was losing time with me,” Monique finally said. “After we moved in, everything felt like it belonged to Darius and Malik.”
Ava shook her head.
“I wanted time with you. I didn’t want you to leave him out.”
“I know that now.”
Dr. Ellis asked each of us what we needed at home. Malik said he wanted to know who was picking him up from school. Ava wanted to be able to spend time with her mother without feeling that it had to be a secret. I wanted both children to know they could call me.
Monique said she wanted a chance to repair what she had done.
On the drive home, Malik asked if we could all choose one thing to do together on Saturday. Ava suggested a board game. He picked a card game none of us knew how to play, and she offered to learn.
The session had been hard, but I heard the children planning something together. I hoped Monique heard it too.
For two weeks, we followed the schedule on the refrigerator. I handled most pickups. Monique took Ava to her dance class and came back in time to eat with us. She asked Malik about art club. He answered carefully at first, then showed her his painting.
Dr. Ellis met with each child separately. I tried to give them room to speak without asking afterward what they had said.
One Friday, Malik called me before school ended.
“Dad, Monique’s here. She says she’s taking me home.”
I pulled my car into a parking space.
“She’s allowed to pick you up if we’ve arranged it. We didn’t today. Put me on speaker, please.”
Monique came on the line.
“My meeting finished early,” she said. “I thought I’d save you the drive.”
“I’m already here.”
She sighed.
“I was trying to help.”
“I know. I’ll meet you both at the front entrance.”
Malik got into my car. Monique drove Ava home in hers. Nobody shouted. Still, Malik stayed quiet until we reached our street.
“Did I do the right thing calling?” he asked.
“Yes. We agreed I’d pick you up, and you checked.”
He nodded.
I spoke with Monique later. She said she hadn’t realized the change would alarm him. I believed she hadn’t meant to frighten him that day. I also told her that keeping to the plan mattered more than a convenient pickup.
“I feel like I can’t make one wrong move,” she said.
“You can make a mistake and tell me about it. You can tell Malik too.”
She agreed to speak with him.
The following Wednesday, a bill arrived for an after-school program Malik had never attended. It listed charges for the previous three months.
I called the program. They told me the place had been reserved under Malik’s name, but he had stopped attending after the first week. The charges continued because no one canceled.
Monique had enrolled him before I changed my schedule. When I asked, she said she had hoped the program would solve the pickup problem.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought you’d say I was passing him off to strangers.”
“I might have asked whether he wanted to go.”
“He didn’t.”
“I wish I’d known there was a problem to solve.”
She handed me the emails. I went through them with her at the table. I could see how often she had tried to fit two school schedules around her work.
I could also see the message where Malik had asked to return to art club. She had replied to the program that he would keep attending there. She hadn’t told me he asked.
“I was overwhelmed,” she said.
“I understand that. He still needed us to listen.”
“I know.”
On Saturday, we played the card game. Malik explained the rules three times. Ava made everyone laugh when she accidentally helped him win.
For an hour, I saw the family I had hoped we could be.
Then my phone rang. It was Renee.
She had gone to pick up a coat she’d left at our house while we were all out. Our front door had been unlocked when she arrived. When she went inside, she found Malik’s recipe book on the entry table beside an empty shopping bag.
“I haven’t touched it,” she said. “I thought you should know.”
I looked across the room. Malik was teaching Monique how to shuffle.
I ended the call without mentioning the book. When the game finished, I went to the entryway.
The book was there.
Monique came behind me.
“I put it by the door,” she said. “I was going to get a protective cover made for it.”
“Were you taking it somewhere?”
“Yes. To the print shop. It’s falling apart.”
I looked at the bag. I could understand wanting to protect it. I could also see how frightened Malik would be if he came upstairs and found it gone again.
“We need to ask him first.”
Monique looked toward the living room.
“You’re right,” she said.
I carried the book back to Malik. Monique sat beside him and explained what she had wanted to do. He said no. She put the shopping bag away.
May you like
Later, I told Renee what had happened. She sounded unconvinced, but she listened.
So did I. I listened to how Monique had explained it and to how Malik answered. I was learning that keeping him safe meant letting him make decisions about the things that belonged to him.
