Home Again

Joey shrugged.

“I really cried a lot when I knew I wasn’t going to be married forever,” Cedar continued. “It may sound strange, Joey, but crying when you’re sad can actually make you feel better.”

Joey shrugged.

“Do you have room in your tummy for another piece of chicken, Joey?” Cedar said. “Yes? No? Maybe you’ll want to leave room for the chocolate chip ice cream I brought.”

“Do you like being in your house all by yourself?” Joey said.

“Oh, I’m not alone,” Cedar said, smiling. “I have a cat named Oreo. I named her that because she’s black and white.”

“Cats are cool,” Joey said, nodding in approval.

“I sure like being in this house better since you came to live with me, Joey,” Mark said. “Having you here beats being all by myself.”

“Really?” Joey said, his eyes widening.

“Yep,” Mark said. “I wish you’d talk to me more, though.”

“Well, I might be able to do that,” Joey said. “Maybe.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Mark said.

“Cedar could live here with us and bring her cat Oreo,” Joey said, “in case I don’t want to talk to you too much, Uncle Mark.”

Interesting thought, Mark mused, stifling a chuckle. How was Cedar going to respond to that one?

“Do you have room for that ice cream, Joey?” Cedar said.

Mark laughed. “There’s more than one kind of chicken at this table, Dr. Kennedy.”

“Huh?” Joey said.

Cedar glared at Mark.

After they’d consumed ice cream and cleaned the kitchen, Cedar asked Joey if he’d like to show her his room.

“It’s just a room, with a bed and stuff,” Joey said. “There’s nothing much to see or anything.”

“But you have—” Mark started.

“Well, maybe another time,” Cedar interrupted.

“Yeah…maybe,” Joey said. “I need to take my chef’s apron off now. I hardly got anything messy on it.”

Cedar helped him to remove the apron.

“Yep, you kept it pretty clean, Joey,” she said, holding it up for view, “but I think it still needs to be washed.”

“No,” he said, snatching the apron out of Cedar’s hands.

“Hey, that was rude,” Mark said. “You shouldn’t grab things from people, Joey.”

Joey hugged the apron tightly. “But I don’t want it washed. I’m going to go put it in a special place in my room and nobody can touch it but me. It’s mine. Mine.”

“That’s fine,” Cedar said. “Off you go to select that special place. I’m headed for the living room to enjoy that lovely fire.”

Joey ran from the kitchen and Cedar walked slowly to the living room, Mark following behind her. She sank onto a love seat facing the fireplace while Mark put another log on the glowing embers. He straightened, rested one arm on the mantel and looked at her.

“I don’t have a clue whether this evening is going well or not,” he said, frowning. “Joey said more to you than he’s ever said to me, but…are we thrilled or discouraged?”

Cedar smiled up at him. “Neither, really. I’m just gathering information.”

“You approached some heavy topics, then backed off right away.”

“It’s like planting seeds, Mark. Now we wait to see if Joey thinks about any of those topics we touched on. He did to a point, when he broached the subject of my being alone. You did very well with that, by the way, by telling him you liked having him here.” Cedar sighed. “Joey is a very frightened boy. He’s even afraid to be friends with Benny because, to him, friendship is supposed to be forever, and Joey has no trust in forever anymore. We’ve got a long way to go with that little sweetheart.”

“What about you, Cedar?” Mark said. “You didn’t get happily ever after in your marriage. Have you learned to trust forever again?”

“I’m focused on my career now,” she said, shifting her gaze to the flames in the hearth. “I really don’t have time for a relationship. You should be able to relate to that. You obviously put in very long hours at your construction company.”

“True, but someday, when I’ve reached my goals, I want to have a wife and family. That won’t be for quite a while yet, though.” The wife part, at least. “I have a son, family, even if Joey isn’t exactly thrilled about it.”

“Well, I hope those goals are clearly defined in your mind,” Cedar said, looking at Mark again, “so you know when you’re there. Me? I’m centered totally on my career so I don’t have to worry about when to shift gears.”

“In other words, you don’t trust in forever anymore,” Mark said.

“I didn’t say that,” she said, lifting her chin. “I’ve chosen what I want to do with my life and I’m very content with my decision.”

“Mmm,” Mark said, then looked toward a hallway. “I don’t think Joey is going to come back out of his room. I’m going to go get him. It’s one thing to ignore me every evening, but you’re company, and he’s not being polite.”

Cedar got to her feet. “No, let him do what feels right. I’ll go say goodbye to him, but I won’t attempt to enter his room because he doesn’t want to share his private space yet.”

“You’re leaving?” Mark said, pushing away from the mantel. “There’s no reason for you to go so soon. I mean, hey, shouldn’t you be here in case Joey decides to be sociable? Anyway, just because Joey’s had enough of our company for tonight doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves. I have a lot of DVDs if you’d like to watch a movie. I’ve even got some girl flicks that belonged to my sister. You know, like Sleepless in Seattle and While You Were Sleeping and Casablanca.”

“Girl flicks?” Cedar said, with a burst of laughter. “Oh, that is such a politically incorrect term, Mr. Chandler. Shame on you.”

Mark grinned. “Well, what would you call those movies? I can’t picture myself rushing out and buying any of them.” He placed one hand over his heart. “However, nice guy that I am, I’ll watch one with you.”

“Thank you, but no,” Cedar said, still smiling. “It’s been a long day. I’d probably doze off halfway through a movie.”

“No problem,” Mark said, matching her smile. “That would mean you’d still be here in the morning and you could sample some of my world-famous scrambled eggs.”

“Oh, I’m definitely going home now,” Cedar said, laughing again.

The smile on Mark’s face vanished.

“I told you how much I like hearing your laughter,” he said, “but it bears repeating. Wind chimes.” He stopped speaking, stared down at the floor for a long moment, then looked directly into Cedar’s eyes. “You know, I realize you’re here tonight for Joey, but I want to tell you that I enjoyed your company very much.”