Chapter 50
“Well,
you’re here just in time. Get in here, Carter!”
She
pulled him in by his shirt sleeve and planted a kiss on his questioning lips.
“What’s
goin’ on?”
“We’re
watchin’
“And
you’re excited about this?” He stumbled along behind her, tripping up stairs as
she continued to lead him by his shirt sleeve. What the hell?
“Yep.
Come on. We’re camped out in my room.”
Camped
out was right. She’d made breakfast for Nathanael and
herself, serving it on bed trays, brought up extra pillows, books, toys. Over
“Aw
man…you’re havin’ a bedroom party without me!”
“Poor
baby…I’m sorry.” She jumped up on the bed much to the delight of Nathanael and smacked the spot next to her inviting Nick
in. “Come on…..Big Bird’s doin’ something here.”
“Why
the new obsession with
“Cuz
today there’s a special guest!” She winked at Nick and put up a finger to quiet
him when and if realization dawned on him.
“Do
you know who it is, Unka Nick? She won’t tell me.”
“Uh,
no….I don-…oh! Oh! OH! Yeah, I think I might. Just hang tight.” He snuggled
into Ciara’s neck not really wanting to see this
anyway. “You’re nuts.”
“Mmmm…yes,
I am. Now,” she shrugged him off and grabbed the remote, “back off Bucko. I
gotta tape this.”
“Tape
it? What the hell for?”
“Unka Nick…watch your mouth. Big Bird….clap in rhythm! Ugh.
He’s so silly.”
“Because
I tape everything you guys do. Always have.”
“No
way.”
“Way…move…check
this out.” She climbed over him stealing just one more kiss and disappeared
into her closet grunting and groaning as she scooted back out backwards pulling
a heavy box.
“Ci…what are you… God, woman. Let me help you.”
“It’s
ELMO!!!!!” Nathanael was jumping up and down on the
bed and Ciara stopped pulling and plopped on the bed.
“What
the….”
“UNKA
NICK!!!!!!!!!! IT’S YOU!!!!!!!!! You met ELMO!?”
Okay,
so maybe this wasn’t so bad. “Yep. He’s pretty cool.” Nick sat down and cringed
all the way through the song. He’d felt so silly doing it, but he couldn’t deny
it was fun.
“Hey….who’s
the purple chic? You holdin’ out on me?”
“Oh,
yeah, uh…she was before we got back together, Ci…you
know how it is.”
“Mmmm…floozy
muppet.” Ciara grabbed the
remote and stopped recording kissing Nick’s cheek again. “You were fantabulous,
Unka Nick.”
“Gee,
thanks…now, what the hel-…heck is in this box?”
“Open
it up.”
So
he did. Video tapes. Tons of them. All marked with titles and dates even
arranged in chronological order. Ciara could be a bit
obsessive with her organizational skills. “Jesus, Ci…how
many years worth of stuff is this?”
“One
smalllll voice……” Nathanael
caught on quick. To one line. Only.
“Um,
started in 1997 I think. Whenever you showed up on American TV. I have some
from friends I’ve made online in
“One
smallllll voice!”
“Have
radio interviews and stuff on cassettes in there too.”
“Good
God…you’ve got…damn, I don’t even remember this stuff!”
“One
smalllllll voice!”
“Honestly,
neither do I. But I like to have it. Nate, honey,
please…”
“One
smallllll voice!”
“Ugh.
I kept up with you this way. That and AJ and the internet.”
“I
had no idea…we should watch some of this some time.”
“One
smallllll voice.”
“Sure…it’d
be fun. NATE!” She calmly handed the bed trays to Nick and tackled Nathanael, tickling him furiously. “Off switch, big guy. We
need to find your off switch.”
“It’s
broken.” He wiggled his way out from under Ciara’s
attack and hid behind ‘Unka Nick’.
“I
see that…time for a bath. Mommy’s comin’ to pick you up today.”
******~~~~~~******~~~~~~
“This
is the beluga whale that was singin’ to us, and uh…here’s some of the show. The
dolphins all jumped really high, like at Sea World.”
Ciara’s sister just sat quietly listening to Nathanael tell the tales of his week through the pictures
they’d had developed. She’d enjoyed her cruise, but did spend way too much time
worrying about her son being in Ciara and Nick’s
care. She was beginning to see the foolishness of it all. Sort of.
“Then
we went to the top of this REALLY big building. As tall as the ones those mean
men crashed in
Looking
to her sister with fear-filled eyes, “You went to the top of Sears? Isn’t that
a little risky nowadays?”
“Why?
It’s fine…you know, you really need to lighten up. He had a blast. He’s here.
We’re safe. What’s the problem?”
“No
problem, it just…”
“And
then Unka Nick gave a dancing waitress a dollar. She
put it in her shirt!”
“OOOKKKAAAYYY,
Nate! Let’s go check your bedroom and make sure you
got everything.” Nick had been sitting watching the scene before him amazed at Ciara’s sister’s attitude. However, he did not need the
interrogation that was bound to follow Nathanael’s
little announcement. How in the hell did Ciara come
from the same blood line as this woman? Night and day.
Watching
the two boys go up the stairs, Nick on his feet, Nathanael
hanging from Nick’s hands by his feet, Ciara couldn’t
help but laugh. They were a great little team. To avoid any further thought of
Nick and kids, she shook her head and busied herself in the kitchen hoping sis
would miss the comment from her son.
“What
is he talking about? And since when is his name ‘Nate’?”
Well,
she hoped anyway. “That’s what Nathanael wants to be
called. His words. As for the dancing waitress…well, we took Nate to a strip joint after the Aaron show. Pics will come in tomorrow if you want me to send ‘em.”
Cheesy grin. What did she think anyway?
“Fine,
be a little bitch about it.” Noticing a missing element in her world, Ciara’s sister spun around frantically. “Where’s Rachel?”
“No
idea, sis. I thought you always knew where your kids were.” Ciara
was lucky she wasn’t breaking dishes, she was so frustrated. She’d given up an
entire week for this woman’s kid, took him on a great trip, had no problems
with him and this is the thanks she got. The fucking Spanish Inquisition.
Looking
around downstairs and finding nothing, Ciara’s sister
made her way back upstairs. What she’d find just might change her view of this
pop star forever.
Draw
me the night said the rainbow.
And the artist drew a dark night.
Draw
me the moon, said the night.
And the artist drew a full moon.
Draw me a star, said the moon.
The
three “children” were sitting on the floor, Rachel in Nick’s lap helping to
hold the book open and Nathanael at his side holding
a stuffed airplane under his arm. For the next part, Nathanael’s
little hand covered Nick’s as they traced the star in the book.
Down,
over, left, and right, draw a star oh so bright.
Nathanael “read” the next line.
It
was a good star, Unka Nick..
“Yes,
it was…”
Hold
on to me said the star to the artist.
Then, together they traveled across the night sky.**
“Draw
me a star, Unka Nick…can you draw that star?”
“Yep,
Aunt Cici taught me…you have your pad of paper in
your bag?”
“Yep…I’ve
got the one you bought me in here somewheres…” He
clamored up seeing his mommy standing at the door. “Oh! Hi, Mommy. Nick and me’re gonna draw a star!”
“I
see that…you okay with them both?” Okay, so maybe she was being a bit
judgmental. He was a kid magnet.
Nick
looked down at the brown curls under his chin and smiled. “Yep. Looks that way.
You need to go?”
“Soon…go
on…” Ciara finally had finished downstairs and came
up to join the scene. He’d suck her sister into his magic yet, wouldn’t he?
“Okay,
Unka Nick…got it here.”
Nick
took the pad and put it over the book. “Okay, Rachel you help too.” She curled
her teeny hand over Nick’s and Nathanael laid his on
top of his sisters. “Let’s do it now…down, over, left and right…”
“Draw
a star…oh so bright! We did it!!!”
“It
was a good star!”
“YAY!”
Rachel wasn’t totally sure why everyone was so happy, but she had to chime in
somehow.
“Let
mommy see, Nate.” There, she said it. And she was
rewarded with a big grin.
“Here,
Mommy.” He got up and brought her the pad. “And I like Nate,
huh? Mafameel is too hard to say.”
“Yes,
Nate will work. A very good star. You two ready to
go?”
“Yep…let’s
go home, Mommy.”
As
Nick stood back up, he smiled uncomfortably at the woman. He had no idea what
she hated so much about him, but wish she’d just give him a chance. He was just
a guy. Okay, not a normal guy…he had more baggage than the belly of an
airplane, but to Ciara anyway, he was just a guy.
Isn’t that all that mattered? Not really wanting to deal with her any further,
he kissed Ciara and led the pack downstairs bags slug
over his shoulders.
“Nick?”
“Yeah?”
Now what?
“Thanks.
I’ve…I’ve not been fair.”
He
just shrugged. What was he supposed to say? ‘No you haven’t. You’ve been a
bitch to your sister and to me.’ Uh, no. “It’s all good. You’ve got great kids.
Oh, and keep the book. I bought it for him anyway.”
Everything
was gathered and everyone under 4 ft. tall and their mother was shoved out the
door…finally. “Bye Unka Nick! Bye Aunt Cici!”
As
Ciara watched them buckle in and drive away, her thoughts
couldn’t help but travel to the place she typically left closed off, but had
been haunting her all week. It was a place she didn’t like to go. A place she
had yet to take Nick. Not wanting to bring him there quite yet, she planted a
fake smile on her face and kissed Nick’s cheek, ruffling his hair as she made
her way back inside.
“I’m
gonna run up and take a long, quiet bath. Will you wait for me?”
“Yep…I’m
here.” Something just shifted in her, he could tell. “You okay?”
Damn
him and that question…always pried to her heart. “Yeah…just tired now that he’s
gone. I won’t be long.”
He
let her go. Something was up. But, he’d learned. She’d talk when she was ready.
Besides, he had enough shit waiting for him starting tomorrow. No more trips
with Ciara to block it out. It was time to get to
work again. And to get back to normal.
******~~~~~~******~~~~~~
“Ahhhh…that helped!”
“Woah…look at you!” He had never seen her wear the kimono
he’d bought her in
“Mmm…that
felt good. You need to do that more often.”
“Anytime.
Can you tell me something?” He ran his hand through her wet curls, putting them
back in place and fluffing them out like he’d seen her do so many times.
“I
can try…”
“Your
sister. Is it me?”
“No,
it’s her.” She took his hand from her hair and kissed his fingers. “She’s
threatened by anyone who makes me happy. Always has been.”
“Why?
Don’t you want your family to be with someone who makes them happy?”
“Well,
most people, yeah. My family…it’s weird, Nick. They’ve taken me being sick to
such an odd place. It’s like it’s their hold on me. No one else gets it like
they do. No one’s allowed to get it.”
“But,
Ci…they don’t get it! You’re not a cripple.
You don’t need to be treated with kid gloves.”
“I
know and that’s why I choose to be with you, Nick. I don’t need their
protectiveness. And I don’t need approval either. I really don’t.”
“I
know…it just bugs me. My family’s so screwed up, but damn, we don’t treat each
other like that.”
Ciara shrugged. As much as it irritated
her, she was used to it. Tired of it, too, but now that she was here alone with
him, she didn’t give a damn. She leaned into his chest, sighing as his arm
wrapped around her, pressing the cold silk against her skin.
“Hey…listen
to that…”
“What?”
“Shhhh…just
listen…..”
“Ci…”
“Shhhhh….”
Breathing,
the tick of her grandfather clock, the rhythm of the ceiling fan motor. “What
is it, Ci?”
“You
hear it? Silence. He’s gone. It’s just you and me again.”
“Oh…yeah…it
is, isn’t it?” He looked down to her green eyes gazing up at his. Yep. Just Cici and Nick. Just the way he liked it.
***
