Page 27

I have successfully managed to detangle my hair and condition them twice. That is when I hear the doorbell ring. I wonder why the boys would ring the bell? Also, it has barely been 45 minutes since James left. I guess he could not stay away from me. God Ri! Snap out of it and open the door.

I put on the bathrobe and make my way down to open the door. The doorbell rings again and again. “Yes…I’m coming.” I shout and finally open the door. I see no one when I open the door. No sign of the boys. That is until someone walks into me. Someone tiny.

“Are you lost?” I ask the little boy. He reminds me of someone I know. “Where’s your parents?”

He doesn’t say anything, just walks into the house. Ohk… I can totally deal with a kid breaking into James’ house. “Umm… excuse me kid. What’s your name? Are you lost? Do you know where your mom is?” He stops in his footsteps and sits on the couch as if he owns the place. Still saying nothing.

He reaches for something in his pocket and for the first time I am afraid of a kid. Of course, he can’t possibly pull out a gun from his tiny pocket. I close the door and make my way towards him. He pulls out his phone and opens the notes app and starts typing. ‘I am here to meet my brother.’

“Your brother? George?” Dan has a sister and Sid has an older brother and a younger sister. Although, I am not sure if George ever mentioned his younger brother.

The kid nods and starts typing again. ‘Marcus.’ And my heart stops. Marcus has a younger brother? He never mentioned that to me. Even when I looked him up on google, I didn’t see any mention of his mom ever being pregnant after him. But nonetheless, he never told me. I told him about everything. I presented my life to him as an open book to read and yet he…He lied to me.

“Marcus? Marcus James Williams is your brother?” I ask the kid and he nods. “What is your name?” I ask the kid.

He starts typing again. “Caleb.”

“Hello Caleb.” I try to smile. “Do you know sign language?” I learned sign language in my last semester in Australia. I used to volunteer at a children’s shelter and there were some kids who were either deaf or dumb. I’d learned sign language to communicate with them and it just kind of stuck around. I learned Australian sign language along with American sign language. Because, isn’t learning languages super fun? I like the advantage of being able to converse in a language that no one in the room can understand. It’s being secretive openly.

Caleb signs ‘Yes’ to me.

I sign to him to tell him that James isn’t home. He just shrugs and stays in place.

He keeps looking around and that’s when his stomach growls. I chuckle softly and ask him if he’s hungry. He just nods to me. “Give me two minutes and I’ll be back.” I rush upstairs to put on James’ clothes and come back down to find Caleb listening to classical music. “Caleb…” I call out to him. “How old are you?” I sign to him.

“5.” He signs to me. He has awfully mature taste in…everything for a five year old. His suit and pants stun me. But it’s the classical music that knocks my socks off. Since when do five year olds listen to classical music? He’s so much different than James.

“Do you want to eat chocolate crepes? I will add whipped cream to it as well.” His face lights up and he cheerfully walks towards the kitchen. Maybe he is still a kid at heart, as he should be. For heaven’s sake, he’s just five. “Do you want to help me make the crepes, Caleb?” I ask him. His smile widens and runs towards me. “Do you like bacon with maple syrup? James…Marcus once told me that they were your mom’s favourite.” His smile drops immediately.

Shit! Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned his mother. Then it strikes me…Caleb is five years old, James’ mother died five years ago. James resents his father for all the cheating, but what if it was not just that? Oh my God! It might be just me overthinking, but what if James’s mom was pregnant when she got into the accident? And…

“Mommy liked it?” Caleb asks me. He doesn’t sign. He asks me with his mouth. He can talk?

I try to hide my surprise. I don’t want to scare away the kid. “Yeah. Your brother told me that once.”

“Did you know mommy? Can you tell her something for me?” Caleb signals me to bend down with his tiny little hands. I squat down, so that I can see eye to eye with him.

“Sure.” I try to smile at his odd request.

This time he speaks. His voice is so adorable, contradictory to his words. “I want her to come back. She left because of me and daddy and Marcus are sad that she is gone. So can you ask her to come back?” The little kid’s eyes welled up.

“Oh sweetheart. Your mommy didn’t leave because of you.” I take his tiny hands into mine. “Your mommy loved you so much.” And he starts crying after I say that. I feel a weird pain in my heart for the kid. Did James and his dad never tell him that? For fuck’s sake! He’s five years old. A five year old should not be saying or even be thinking something like that.

He clutches onto my hands and tries to hold back his tears. “Can you tell me more about mommy?” He calms down a little and asks me to lift him up. I put him on the table while I make the batter for the crepes. I try to gather everything James has told me about his mother. We spoke a little about her this morning and a little during breakfast. That’s when he told me that she used to like bacon with maple.

I dip the tip of my finger in the batter and smear it a little on his nose and he starts chuckling out of control. “She also liked classical music. Just like you.” It is the most adorable laugh I have ever heard.

“Really?” he asks me.

I smile and nod to him. James hates listening to classical music, because it reminds me of his mother. Caleb smiles to himself. “Do you want to help me crack open the eggs?” I ask him.

He throws his hands in the air and squeaks with joy. I roll back his sleeves and help him crack open the eggs. We crack the first egg and then Caleb cracks the second one on his own and I clap for him and he chuckles in an adorable kid-ish way.

The crepes are ready in no time with Caleb’s help. He is a cleanliness freak and asked me to clean up after every time I poured the batter. He is very cute nonetheless.

We are laughing about how Caleb knows everyone’s secrets in school because they don’t care when talking around him, because well…he doesn’t speak to anyone. Which I still find really sad.

“So now Holly and Becca are both crazy about John.” he summarises.

My eyes widened in disbelief that I am this invested in kindergarten drama. But it’s the way he tells stories. I can’t help it! “But he likes Lilah!” I gasp.

“Yes he does.”

“Damn!” I bite my tongue. “I mean, Oh my God!” I quickly corrected myself.

Caleb chuckles and bangs his hand on his leg. A trait he has in common to his brother. “It’s fine. I know most cuss words. Marcus taught me some.”

Did he? “Well, saying cuss words is bad. Don’t listen to him and don’t use cuss words. You are just a kid. Kids don’t cuss.” He nods like an obedient child. “Do you want more crepes?”

“Can you add melted chocolate and rainbow sprinkles along with whipped cream, please?” He makes the puppy eyes, again…similar to his brother. He has brown eyes, unlike James, who inherited his mother’s blue eyes. Does his father have brown eyes? I never noticed.

“Sure I can, Caleb.” I smile at him and his face explodes with joy and I get a happy dance out of him. A little booty shaking and wiggling. “Do you like chocolate chips with yours?”

“Yessss…” He shouts. Dan hides chocolate chips in room because Sid once gave them a choice to choose between chocolate and chocolate chips and well…George and James collectively chose chocolate. Dan was not happy about it so he started hiding chocolate chips in his room. How do I know? He told me to help myself with some once when we were having waffles.

I make a few more crepes and melt some chocolate for the crepes while Caleb tells me all about the drama in kindergarten. He is very smart for his age and can read people so well. I know I shouldn’t feed off kindergarten drama, but I can’t help myself. It is just so good!

“I’m all done. Let me get the chocolate chips for you.” I fold the crepes in quarters, add whipped cream on top, add two strawberries on it which makes Caleb very very happy and drizzle the chocolate on it. It looks spectacular.

I make my way to Dan’s room to grab the chocolate chips when I hear the front door open and close and some chaos that follows.

“Raven!!! Time for round t–” I hear James.