Chapter 2 - The Things Ben Had Stopped Asking For
Andre moved toward Ben, but the boy stepped back.
It wasn't a dramatic movement.
Just half a step.
Still, Andre felt it more sharply than anything Tanya had said.
"Ben," he began.
His son kept looking at the birthday card.
"I thought she didn't want to see me anymore."
Andre turned toward Tanya.
"Why would he think that?"
Tanya looked toward the two other children.
"Maybe we shouldn't discuss this in front of everybody."
"You were comfortable discussing why Ben wasn't worth the same as your children."
"Andre—"
"Why did you have a birthday card addressed to him?"
Tanya pressed her lips together.
"I was going to give it to him."
"When?"
"I forgot."
"Three months?"
"People forget things."
Andre looked at Ben.
The boy was rubbing his thumb across the handwriting on the card, tracing the letters as though he recognized every one.
Andre realized that no explanation Tanya offered would help his son at that moment.
"Come with me, Ben."
He led him into the small den beside the dining room.
The door stayed partly open.
Andre sat on the sofa, leaving space beside him.
Ben remained standing.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Ben asked, "Did Grandma really say she didn't want me coming over?"
Andre looked up.
"What?"
"On my birthday, I asked Tanya if Grandma was going to call. She said Grandma was having a hard time remembering Mom and needed some space."
Ben stared at the card.
"I thought maybe seeing me made her sad."
Andre felt his stomach sink.
Nia had died three years earlier after a sudden medical illness.
In the months following her death, Andre had thrown himself into work.
He owned a successful commercial construction business. Their home was large, their bills were paid, and Ben had everything Andre assumed a boy needed.
Except Andre had stopped paying attention to what happened when he wasn't home.
He had married Tanya eighteen months earlier, believing she could help restore warmth to the house.
Instead, he had mistaken quiet for peace.
"Ben, Grandma Lena loves you."
"Then why didn't she call?"
Andre couldn't answer.
Ben sat on the far end of the sofa.
He took off one sneaker and turned it over.
The lining near the heel had worn through. A strip of tape had been carefully pressed along the inside.
"How long have you been wearing those?" Andre asked.
"About a month."
"Why didn't you tell me they were hurting your feet?"
Ben shrugged.
"I tried telling Tanya they felt weird."
"What did she say?"
"That I was being picky."
Andre covered his mouth with one hand.
Ben continued, almost apologetically.
"I didn't want you guys fighting about me."
That sentence broke something in Andre.
His thirteen-year-old son had been managing adult emotions while the adults were supposed to be protecting him.
Andre remembered his wedding day.
He had crouched beside Ben before the ceremony and promised him that no matter how much their lives changed, he would never become a guest in his own home.
Now the boy was sitting several feet away, afraid even to complain about painful shoes.
A soft knock came from the doorway.
Maya stood there.
She had removed her expensive sneakers and was wearing plain socks.
"Can I come in?"
Ben looked uncertain.
Andre nodded.
Maya approached the sofa and held out her phone.
On the screen was a photograph from the previous summer.
All three children were standing beside the backyard swimming pool.
Ben was in the middle, laughing, with Caleb hanging from one shoulder and Maya making bunny ears behind his head.
"Remember this?" Maya asked.
Ben gave a faint smile.
"Caleb pushed me into the pool right after."
"I did not!" Caleb protested from the doorway.
For one brief second, the children sounded like themselves again.
Then Maya lowered the phone.
"Mom wanted us to take another picture. Just me and Caleb. That was the one she printed and put in the hallway."
Andre remembered the photograph.
He had walked past it hundreds of times.
"I didn't think much about it," Maya said. "But Ben wasn't in any of the pictures Mom picked."
Ben stared at the floor.
Caleb entered the room.
"I thought Ben didn't like pictures."
"I do," Ben said.
His voice was small.
"I just stopped getting asked."
Maya's expression tightened.
She looked toward her father.
"There's something else."
Andre waited.
"Grandma Lena called here on Ben's birthday."
Ben lifted his head.
"What?"
"I saw her name on the kitchen phone. Mom answered it."
Andre stood.
"Are you sure?"
Maya nodded.
"Afterward, I asked if Grandma was coming over. Mom told me you had already spoken to her."
Andre felt the room shift beneath him.
He had never spoken to Lena about keeping her away.
Not once.
And now the woman who had supposedly abandoned Ben had sent him a card, called on his birthday, and received no answer from the people who were meant to love him.
Andre looked toward the open doorway.
May you like
Tanya was standing somewhere beyond it.
For the first time, he wondered how many things in his son's life he had accepted simply because his wife had told him they were true.
