The Between Years

mean?”

    “ Well,” Randy said, “it means there are some real nasty people out there who like to steal children. Then those kids would never see their mommies and daddies would never see their kids again. Sounds pretty awful, doesn't it?”

    Kenny nodded but kept on with his trucks.

    Now he needed to consider things that he might or might not have said, which threw him for a loop, but he decided it was good advice. He was nothing if not a responsible parent, he decided. But how had he grown so fast? If he really was Kenny, where had he gone to do all that growing?

    He leaned in to gaze at Kenny's face but was careful not to be caught staring. All the familiar features were present: eyes, mouth, chin and nose. He was Kenny all right, but he still couldn't get over how he'd aged four years in a proverbial heartbeat or how the room could have changed so rapidly.

    Worse yet, he had missed out on another four years of Kenny's life, which he could never recover. He thought missing three and a half years had been bad enough, and he reflected on how badly he wanted those special memories and tender moments back, but he decided there was little value in stopping something he couldn't change.

    Then he remembered that he'd left the gifts he'd bought Kenny in the dining room and he worried that he would lose any of the attention from Kenny he'd gained if he left the room. Kenny appeared to be more of a football fan than a soccer fan (which suited Randy just fine) but surely he would love the books! That also made him feel like he must buy Kenny's attention much less his love, which made him sink deeper into the doldrums.

    Finally, Randy said, “Right, little buddy. That sounds like real good advice. Glad you're following it. But tell me, do you ever get yourself into mischief? It's okay, I won't be mad.”

    “ Mischief?”

    “ Yeah, you know, kind of like when you do things you know you're not supposed to do, but you're not really trying to be bad.”

    He shook his head. “Sometimes kids at school make fun of me because I won't do the bad stuff they want me to do. But my teacher really likes me. I just won student of the month!”

    Randy smiled and thought: That's my boy!

    “ So, you wouldn't take off anywhere and try to hide from your dad, would you?”

    Kenny shook his head, but remained silent and returned to his trucks.

    “ Must be really into those trucks, eh?” Randy asked. “Who gave 'em to you?”

    Kenny kept about his business, but Randy had yet to lose his patience.

    “ There any particular reason you're not interested in talking to me?”

    “ Because. You told me I could see Mommy. You made a promise-you pinkie swore!-and I still haven't seen her.”

    Randy froze. He knew the boy was going to hold him accountable no matter how impossible the task.

    “ But I haven't broken my promise yet, Kenny,” Randy said. “I made a promise to you, young man, and I plan to keep it. Tall orders like this one just take Daddies a little longer to come through on, that's all.”

    Randy knelt down, sat cross-legged with Kenny, and wrapped his arm around him. “Sometimes grownups have to do things the long way, especially mommies and daddies. Wanna know why? Because things get complicated and we can't always do the things we want as fast as we want to.”

    “ I know you're mad at Mommy and that's why you don't want to live with her anymore.”

    That wasn't true, Randy thought. Not exactly. He'd only said he wanted to separate. But Kenny was farther ahead of the intellectual game than he'd expected him to be. On one hand he wanted to be proud that one could pull next to nothing over him, but his common sense urged him to keep his guard up.

    “ Listen buddy, it isn't like that at all. Sometimes mommies and daddies disagree with each other, they even get mad at one another, and maybe they yell a little, but that doesn't mean I don't want to live with your Mom anymore. We have too many great memories to just throw it all away. I'm just doing what I'm doing right now because my mommy and daddy need me to help them out.”

    “ So you and Mommy are going to get back together soon?”

    “ You bet. And when we do, you'll get to see your Mom all you want.”

    As much as Kenny knew it was horseshit (or a small lie, as he preferred to call it), Kenny seemed satisfied with it, and he returned to slamming his trucks together. Randy didn't like himself for deceiving Kenny, but he felt like he'd run out