Page 81 of Out on a Limb

“We’ll tell him to be careful before he leaves.”

Hobie rolled a Lego piece around in his hand. “Why does Cameron want to go so far away?”

“Because he wants to pursue his dream.”

“What does that mean?”

Walker tried to figure out an explanation. He wrapped his arm around Hobie and pulled him close. “One day, when you’re older, you’re going to find something in this world that gives you more happiness than anything else you could imagine. More than a thousand birthday cakes. It’ll light you up inside and make you excited to wake up in the morning. How do you feel when you play with Legos?”

“I love it.”

“You love playing with Legos more than anything. What if you could play with Legos all day? Would you move far away to do it?”

Hobie stared at the ceiling, deep in thought. His lips squiggled around. “I guess so. As long as I had ice cream breaks, too.”

“Then that’s your dream. That’s what Cameron’s doing. He has a chance to play with Legos all day long, by the ocean.”

“Away from the sharks?”

“Far away from the sharks. He wishes he didn’t have to move to California to play Legos, but we’ll all still be friends. We can talk on the phone or Skype with him.” Walker doubted that would happen. Cameron seemed like a person who truly left a place. “What do you think?”

Hobie acted like he understood, but how could he make sense of all this?Welcome to growing up, Walker thought.

“What’s your dream?” Hobie asked him.

Walker didn’t have the heart to feed him bullshit. What a simple, but loaded question. That’s how kids operated. He kissed his son on the head and breathed in his fresh smell. “You, kiddo. You’re my dream.”

Φ

Although he’d promised Cameron not to treat these next two weeks like a good-bye tour, he couldn’t help getting sentimental. At least this wasn’t too overt. They were watchingThe Incrediblesand eating pizza.

Hobie mimicked the action happening on screen with his Legos. He had trotted out his creations to the living room. Lego spaceships swooped through the air.

“Hey Cameron, want to help Monte save King Dandelion from Smort? Smort planned his attack to be the new King Dandelion.” Hobie handed Cameron one of his ships, but Cameron was glued to his iPad reading yet another script.

Walker nudged him, breaking him from his trance.

“I’m going to watch you play, Hobie. Okay? I have all this homework to do. Isn’t homework the worst?”

“For homework, my teacher had us draw a picture of our favorite stuffed animal.”

“Well, trust me kid. It’s all downhill from there.” And back Cameron went to his iPad. He scribbled notes in his notebook. Walker couldn’t decipher them.

“Are you even watching the movie?” Hobie asked him.

“Yep.”

Walker put a hand over the iPad. “Could you maybe do your reading later?”

“I have a buttload of scripts to read and write coverage on for Arthur.”

“Your job hasn’t started yet.”

“It kinda has.”

“Are you getting paid to do all this reading?”

Cameron shook his head in a very “Parents just don’t understand” way. “That’s not how it works.”