Everything Changes

police. He’s a sweet kid and I don’t want to do it, but maybe I should, you know? I mean, what kind of father leaves his kid with a dancer, anyway?”
    “Why don’t you leave him with me,” I say. “I’ll be seeing Norm soon.”
    She raises her eyebrows, momentarily intrigued, but then shakes her head. “I don’t know you, and I’m not leaving him with someone I don’t know. I’m responsible for him, and you could be a pervert, for all I know. No offense.”
    “None taken,” I say. “Norm’s my father.”
    That surprises her. “You’re shitting me.”
    “It’s the truth.”
    She looks down at Henry, her expression softening. “That makes Henry your stepbrother or something, right?”
    “My half brother,” I say quietly. Henry looks up at me, and then quickly down to his train. When it hits the wall, he makes the sound of an explosion.
    “And you didn’t know?”
    “Nope.”
    Delia considers me for a long moment. “I’d better not,” she finally says. “I don’t know who anyone is in this mess. I just know I don’t belong in the middle of it.” She bends down and grabs Henry’s hand. “Come on, sweetie,” she says, helping him to his feet. “You just find Norm, okay?”
    “I will,” I say.
    I crouch down to look at Henry better. “Hi,” I say. “I’m Zack.” Henry hides his face behind one of Delia’s toned thighs.
    “You guys should go on
Oprah
or something,” Delia says, leading Henry down the stairs.
    “Wait,” I say as she’s helping Henry into the backseat. I come down the stairs, reaching for my wallet as I go, pulling out a wad of bills. “There’s about two hundred dollars there,” I say.
    She eyes the proffered cash suspiciously. “I already told you I’m not leaving him with you.”
    “I understand,” I say. “Just don’t call the police. I’ll get this sorted out, okay?”
    She sizes me up, a woman not unaccustomed to spontaneous negotiations over a fistful of cash. Then she takes the money, unzipping her sweatshirt slightly to tuck it into a red satin bra. “I’ll give you one more day,” she says.
    “That’s all I’m asking.”
    As she drives away, I see Henry’s hand come up in the rear window, waving to me, and even though he’s too small to look above the bench and see me waving back, I do it anyway.

    “Who was that?” Jed says when I come in. He’s sitting at the desk behind the couch, uncharacteristically dressed as he works on the computer.
    “That was Delia.”
    “So we’re dating strippers now?”
    “How’d you know she was a stripper?”
    He taps his temple. “It’s like a sixth sense.”
    “Did you see the boy?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s Norm’s son.”
    “Norm and her?” he says skeptically.
    I shake my head. “It’s complicated.”
    He turns away from the desk. “Explain it to me, then.”
    “I will,” I say, collapsing onto the couch. “As soon as someone explains it to me.”
    “You had no idea, huh?”
    I shake my head. “I don’t know if I’m still surprised, or just surprised that I’m surprised.”
    He comes over to sit with me. “Did you see Hope?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You okay?”
    I think about it. It’s been one thing on top of another today, and I’m having trouble matching up the corresponding emotions and phenomena. “I don’t know. Ask me in a few weeks.”
    “Deal,” Jed says.
    “Can I borrow your car?” I say. “I need to go to Riverdale.”
    “I’ve got a date,” Jed says. “I’ll drive you.”
    “Thanks.”
    We sit on the couch in companionable silence for a few seconds. “Hey,” I say. “Where’s the television?”
    “Yeah,” Jed says, rubbing his chin self-consciously. “I got rid of it this morning.”
    “You got rid of it.”
    “I brought it down to the curb. Didn’t even take twenty minutes. Some guy rigged up a dolly with some Rollerblades and a board.”
    I turn to look at him. “What are you going to do now?”
    He nods, having expected the question. “I don’t know,” he says. “Ask me again in a few weeks.”

Chapter 39
    When I returned to the city, Norm chose to stay in Riverdale to spend some quality time with Pete. It seemed innocent enough at the time, but I should have known by now that everything Norm does has a back end, which, in this case, was avoiding the babysitting stripper with whom he’d left my name as an emergency contact. I walk into the house now to find Norm watching a video on the couch with Lela and Pete, just a puppy