Chapter 14 - WHAT ELI WANTEDEli did not want a new family.
That surprised me.
I assumed discovery would create longing.
He had April.
His maternal grandparents.
Friends.
School.
A life.
He wanted answers.
Why did Brian visit and then disappear?
Why did he never attend Father’s Day events?
Why was Melissa the person who sometimes called the pharmacy?
Why did Elaine meet him twice and vanish?
That last question hurt.
I answered honestly:
“Elaine died.”
“I know.”
“She was also trying to understand how to be involved without going around Brian and your mother.”
“Why?”
“Adults overcomplicate permission.”
He nodded as though this confirmed previous research.
He asked whether I wanted him to call me Grandpa.
I said:
“Only if you want.”
“What if I call you Walter forever?”
“Then I survive.”
He eventually called me Grandpa Walter eight months later.
Accidentally.
We were fixing a lamp.
“Grandpa, hand me—”
He stopped.
I did not react.
That required more self-control than the dog-bowl incident, apparently.
He finished:
“—the screwdriver.”
I handed it over.
No music.
May you like
No speech.
Later I sat in my car and cried like an idiot.
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