Mind Games

Music poured out of the house through open windows, and overhead the sky held its hazy, summer blue.

To her eye, it all made a perfect August evening.

“Bunk bites the bubbles,” Bray told her, and laughed like a lunatic.

“Maybe I should get him a bubble frog.”

“Daddy knows how. Ask Daddy.”

“I’ll do that.”

Bray wore Spider-Man sneakers, a Grave Digger fielder’s cap, and a T-shirt sporting a Bernese mountain dog. If wardrobe depicted a kid’s interests and passions, Bray’s did the job.

Or his father did, she thought. The man knew his boy.

She stepped up to the porch, examined the chicken on the grill. “It looks like you’ve conquered this skill.”

“Maybe. What’s in the basket?”

“Cherry pie.”

“The men in this house are fond of cherry pie. We get them individually wrapped.”

“We’ll see if the men in this house like a pie you have to slice. I’ll just go put it on the counter.”

When she went inside, she caught a familiar scent.

“I smell Grammie’s roasted potatoes.”

“Let’s hope so. I bought actual potatoes, then wondered what the hell to do with them, so I called Lucy. She walked me through.”

Curious, Thea peeked in the oven. “I’m impressed.”

“They’re another maybe yet. There’s wine in the fridge if you want to pour yourself a glass.”

“And I do. Do you want another beer?”

“I’m good.”

She stepped out with her wine, looked at the boy, the dog, the fields, and the hills.

“This is the kind of evening where it feels like summer won’t end. Or you wish it wouldn’t.”

“When I was a kid, summer was full of thrills and misery.”

“Why?”

“Thrills? No school. A month later, still no school. Then misery, because it was coming.”

“I liked the anticipation of going back. Fresh new notebooks, sharpened pencils.”

“Droning lectures, homework. Bray’s all about it, and I’m playing into that. But I couldn’t wait to finish that part of my life. The idea of college, then med school or law school or grad school? Years and years more in classrooms? Misery. Music saved me.”

“You found your path and you followed it. I think I told you, my first day of school here, after my parents died? I was terrified. New girl. I’d wear my hair wrong, or have the wrong shoes.”

“I’ve observed girls worry about shoes, a lot.”

“Of course we do. They’re the foundation. But I had Maddy, and then Gracie. It’s funny, and sweet, that part of them will be with Bray on his first day with Rolan and Lucas.”