Fox Spirit 60 – Battle is Joined
That evening the tension of the day coupled with the delayed jet lag of her long flight caught up with Sara. She woke the next morning only when Richie climbed onto the bed in the spare room to ask, “Gam-ma, you s’eep?” She reached around Richie to bring him closer and felt a fierce surge of protectiveness as he snuggled close.
An hour later, with Richie still snuffling in his sleep, Sara got up to make coffee and look for breakfast. Mark appeared at the door of the kitchen and slumped into a chair, accepting the cup Sara handed him with a grateful look. “God!” he said, staring at the table. “It’s hard to sleep in an empty bed! How did you manage it after Dad died?”
Sara remembered when John had been moved to a hospital bed in what had been their guest bedroom. For the next year, she still had slept on her same side of the bed, still found herself reaching out to touch John next to her, still listened for his breathing to lull her to sleep. She touched Mark’s shoulder. “It was hard. We had shared so much in that bed.”
Sara sat down at the table and Mark reached out to cover her hand with his. “Us too. Even when we fought, whatever we fought about just melted under the sheets. Everything would be better by morning, except when she went to her Mom’s and didn’t come back ‘til the next day.” He stopped abruptly.
“I guessed you were having some problems,” Sara said. “When she wasn’t there to talk on the phone…”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to bother you with it.” Mark got up and poured himself another cup of coffee, as if to end the conversation. He sighed and came back to the table.
“I don’t know what all she told her mom when we fought, but whatever it was Ynez believed it and added to it, I swear. Then when Rennie came home she’d still be angry, still pumped up by whatever her mom had said. I learned if Rennie hadn’t come home, I’d better get off to work before she showed up again. If she didn’t see me until after work ….” He stopped again.
“Tell me about the good times. You had good times, I know.”
“Yeah, we did. Before Richie was born we were so together. She was always doing little things to make me happy, planning little surprises.. And when she was pregnant with Richie it was great. She felt like she was queen of the world, in a good way. Like she could sow niceness and grow happiness. I know you and Dad were worried that she got pregnant so fast, but it was maybe our best time.”
Sara moved her chair closer to Mark, nursing her own cup of coffee. “What happened after Richie came? Things changed? “
“I guess it was hard on Rennie, being home with him. I thought with her being home she’d make friends with some other new moms, but that didn’t happen. So then she decided to go back to work. She wanted to buy a house.
“You remember how happy she was when we bought this house? The party we had, we invited everyone we knew to show it off. We didn’t have hardly any furniture but we were sure house proud. That was a good day too.”
“Yes,” Sara said softly. “I remember. I was proud, too, that the two of you had managed the baby and could still buy a house all on your own.”
“Yeah, well….” Mark swirled a spoon in his coffee. “I guess we managed all right at first. But then I started to travel, and Rennie had to take care of everything on her own. She got a raise at work, and more to do, and leaving the office at 5 o’clock sharp got harder and harder. And by the time Richie was nearing two he was getting to know the difference between Mama and daycare. She felt pulled apart. And even in bed…” He stopped, took a deep breath, not looking at her.
“A lot of couples…” Sara hesitated, then went on. “A lot of couple have a hard time with sex when there’s a baby. Especially the first one. All of a sudden there’s someone else in the house.”
“That’s right,” Mark looked up, relief that she understood showing in his face. “She would ask me to bring him to our bed to nurse. At first it was wonderful to be all three of us so close and warm together, but sometimes I felt like our private place wasn’t ours any more. And I’d catch myself feeling jealous of Richie and then I’d feel like a rotten dad. But we had great times with him, Rennie and I. And sometimes when he was asleep it was like before and we had great times together.” And Mark began very quietly to sob.
Somehow they got through Sunday, with Richie prowling around the house, looking in every room and asking “Where Mama doh?”, Mark looking on helplessly, Sara comforting and hugging and soothing wherever it was most needed. Then came Monday morning and a ring of the doorbell. Mark stood in the entryway, staring at a document which he had just removed from its large manila envelope. He turned to Sara, his expression caught between fury and panic.
“Mom, the Cavallos are suing me for custody of Richie. Like I said, there is no way! I swear, sooner than have Ynez and Giovanni Cavallo raise my kid, I’ll put him up for adoption!”
Sara was stunned. “But that doesn’t make any sense! How can they try to take Richie away from his own father, especially since he has no mother now? On what grounds?”
“They say I’m an unfit parent, that Rennie was already planning on leaving me to escape… I don’t know what. I guess Rennie said a bunch of stuff to her Mom when she was angry with me, and her mom swallowed it all without a single grain of salt. I think… Ynez said something… they think maybe it wasn’t an accident, Rennie’s death. That I drove her to it.”
“Mark, that is crazy. How could they think that?”
“I don’t know what Rennie told her mom. All I know is, look at these papers. They’ve scheduled a hearing next week. Mom, what should I do?”
Sara could hear the quaver in his voice. Suddenly, he was her child again and he needed her. All doubt as to the accuracy of Mark’s perception fell away. Outsiders threatened her family. The reaction was visceral. “Honey, you hold on. We’ll manage this between us.”
Thoughts swirled through her mind: Richie’s small hand clinging to hers, the greedy eyes of Ynez Cavallo, Mark’s panic, the nursery attendant who had the good sense to call Mark rather than simply let Richie go with his grandparents. How could Richie be kept from them? Where would he be safe? Then she saw it, clear and whole.
She outlined her plan briskly. “I think it will take a little time, but we can move faster than they can. The system isn’t going to be too friendly to grandparents trying a hostile takeover from a sole remaining parent.”
“Mom, that’s crazy! We can’t do that! YOU can’t do that!”
“Yes we can! What else can we do? You’ve said yourself you can’t be working and looking after Richie. You can’t live looking over your shoulder all the time in case they snatch him! Even if I gave up my work, came home, and became his granny nanny, then I’d be the one looking over my shoulder all the time. It’s not…”
“But he’s my son!”
Sara forced her voice down, forced herself to sound calm.
“Mark, it’s only for a short time, only until you get this legal hearing over with and you can make arrangements. We’ll be in touch all the time. Richie will be safe. It’s the best way.”
She moved to sit next to Mark on the sofa and took his hand, reaching out to turn his chin so he would look at her.
“Today is Monday. We have a week. We’ll go to Kurt Bentley. I know him from working together on some school committees. What he doesn’t know about family law wouldn’t fill a teacup. We’ll get the papers drawn up and then let the Cavallos try what they can.”
She straightened her spine. Let the battle lines be drawn.
Chinese Puzzle Box 