Expect a Call Later
He said he’d be alright, that everything was fine. He barely looked back. Then he turned and ran up to me, jumped into my outstretched arms and gave me a hug and a kiss. “That’s for later. I hope you have fun,” he said to me.
I was torn between celebrating the occasion or nonchalantly passing it off as commonplace. I chose the latter, hoping that by not drawing too much attention he wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. I feared he had yet to grasp the reality of what was about to take place. In his small voice, childlike and innocent, he reassured me. Confident. He was ready. He’d be fine.
Two weeks ago, Zane turned six years old. Tonight, he is away from me, from Mom, from sisters and brother. He is away from us all for the very first time. He is spending the night with his aunt and uncle who, for his birthday, got him tickets to see the Clippers, our local minor league baseball team. First pitch was not until 7:05pm and therefore he is staying with them and will return home in the morning.
He told me before I left that he’d call before I went to bed, “you know. To make sure you’re OK and to tell you goodnight.”
As promised, he called. I lied and told him everything here was great. (I miss him terribly.) Then he broke my heart. I asked if he had scored any autographs (tonight was autograph night with Major League greats on hand to sign). He matter-of-factly said, “Yeah. I got them all. Two times.”
“You got them to sign twice?” I asked.
“Yeah, I got one for me and one for Grandma.”
My little boy is away from me tonight, for the first time. He’s not concerned about being alone, though. He’s too busy trying to do something nice for his grandmother and making sure that I’m OK without him.
