Meeting
by Christopher Newgent
and i remember meeting you / i ran out and you sat in the car / nervous, biting your nails
“daddy, daddy…is that her?” / we told you our stories
excitedly, and you stopped biting your nails / and i loved you because daddy loved you
* * *
I looked anxiously around the room. My gym bag sat over in the corner, packed full of my clothes, ready for its visit to my daddy’s house. My brother also had his bag ready next to mine, but was nowhere to be seen. I stood in the living room gazing out the screen door, awaiting the arrival of my daddy and his new girlfriend, Toni. There were two other kids in my class that had two mommies like me, and they always got picked on, too. They hated their second mommies. Of course, they hated their daddies, too, but I didn’t hate mine. They kept telling me how my second mommy would yell at me a lot and treat me really bad, and then go buy her own kids ice cream. I didn’t think that Daddy could ever love a lady like that though so I wasn’t worried.
I remember the phone call…, “Chris? I’m going to bring Toni when I come pick you and Chad up this Friday.”
A big grin crossed my face. “I get to meet her?!”
“Yes. I want you boys to meet her.”
I was excited. I hoped she liked me. Daddy had mentioned her a few times to me on the phone, but hadn’t ever let me meet her yet. And now, here I was, four days later at ummm…I turned to check the time. It was 5:37. They should be here any minute. I kept smiling.
Mom had disappeared somewhere. She was seeming nervous ever since she was home from work. Probably had a rough day or something. That was stinky. I was hoping that she would be up for meeting Toni, too. She didn’t seem as excited as I was. Chad had gone in our room to play until they got there, but I wanted to watch them pull up. I wanted to bolt out the door to get to Daddy first and meet Toni. I was already thinking in
my head of different nicknames to call her once she and I became friends. Tone maybe. Or how ‘bout “Tonester?” Yeah, that was a good one. I wondered if she would like that one.
I tapped on the window part of the screen door with my finger nails. I needed to clean them because they had dirt under them from digging for Indian beads today on the play ground. The little rocks that are shaped like a drum. I read somewhere that they came from plants, but that’s ridiculous because plants are green and soft and Indian beads are just rocks. I poked my head out the door and looked down the road. Nothing yet.
The weather outside was nice.
“I wonder if Chad would want to play outside while we waited.” I smiled. “Nah. I want to meet Toni first. I hope she likes me. What if she’s like all of the other second mommies that I hear about?” I shook my head. “She couldn’t be.”
I looked at the clock again. 5:39. I let out a long sigh. It had only been two minutes. It made me feel jittery, like I had to use the bathroom in the car.
“When will they get here? It’s taking them forever!”
5:40. How much longer will they be?! I stepped outside again and sat down on the steps of our front porch. It was a nice day out. It really was. The wind was blowing, and it had kicked up a small dust devil on the gravel road in front of my house. I always thought those were so neat. Like little tornados that I could play in. I did play in a big one once, and I just got really dirty and Mommy yelled at me. I got some dust get in my eyes, too, so after that, I just decided that I would rather watch them. So, for the next few minutes, I watched this dust devil before it died in a crosswind, or at least, that’s what Daddy called it whenever I asked him what happened to the “dust tornado.”
The dust devil had carried my sight down the road, and now, for the first time, the large dust cloud from a car was rising on the road. You can tell when a car is coming down our road because the dust rises over this little row of trees that blocks your view, but the dust tells you anyway. So, all you have to do is just guess that it’s the car you're waiting for. It wasn’t though. It was a little gray car, and Daddy drives a red Chevy truck. He really liked Chevy trucks. They were his favorite. But this car started to slow down on our road and then, pulled into our driveway. Daddy was sitting at the wheel and next to him was a red-headed lady with make-up on. Mommy never wore make-up. I smiled again, beaming at Daddy’s new car. I stood up, running inside and yelling for Chad. By the time I had gotten outside again, Daddy was already half way across the front lawn and I bolted the rest of the way to him, wrapping my arms around him.
“Geez, it took you long enough,” I joked. He chuckled. Daddy had this big, deep chuckle that made me smile. I missed him so much. I really did.
I looked at the lady in the car. “Daddy, Daddy, is that her?” I whispered eagerly.
The chuckle again and he replied, “Yes, Chris. That’s Toni.”
She sat in the car smiling out at me. She looked nervous, too, but it was a funny-looking nervous. I guess, really, she just looked like Mommy or Daddy did whenever they were nervous and didn’t want me to know. I wonder if she’s had a rough day, too? I bet that’s it. And she wants to smile and let us know she's nice when she meets us. She must be nice. Even though she’s had a bad day, she’s trying to be happy for us. Well, I’ll try to cheer her up like I always do when Mommy’s had a hard day at work. Maybe I’ll tell her about the huge crawldad that Chad and me found in the creek the other day. I bet that would make her smile.
I turned back around to get my bag, and Mommy and Chad were out on the porch already. Chad had his bag in his hands already. Show off. Oh well, I was the first to see her. I ran inside to get my bag and came back outside as fast as I could, running to the trunk of the car to put it in there and running back to Mommy. She was standing on the porch watching us leave. She always did that. This time though, she looked really sad and she wouldn’t look at Daddy’s new car. Well, maybe it was Toni’s car, but it’d still be new to Daddy so I guess I’m still right.
“Alright. You boys have a good weekend. Behave for your father,” she kind of choked out. It sounded like she was about to cry.
I smiled up at her and gave her a big hug. “Don’t cry, Mommy. We’ll be back Sunday! I promise.”
She gave me that fake smile of hers. The one she gives after a hard day, but she still wants to smile or laugh at one of my jokes. I liked to make people smile. They always seemed to look better when they smile.
I ran to the car and hopped in the back seat on the right side, right behind Toni. Chad was already in there and we watched as Daddy handed Mommy a check, walked back around the car, and climbed in. I kept watching Toni. She was really pretty. She had bright red hair, and gold on and, nice clothes, and she smelled nice. I liked her. She was still looking kind of nervous and biting her nails a bit. Daddy pulled out of the driveway and I felt the car move forward, kicking up the usual trail of dust behind us. That was always neat to watch, too. It made it look like the car was on fire.
“Boys, this is Toni. Toni, this is Chad and Chris. Chad is on the left, and Chris is on the right.”
She turned a little in her seat and said, “Hello, Chad and Chris, it’s good to finally meet you.” She was pleasant. Not like the stories the other kids were telling me at all. I smiled wide at her. She still had that nervous expression on her face.
‘I wonder what she’s nervous about?’ I thought. I couldn’t say that out loud of course. Daddy told me once, “You never ask someone why they’re worried, because sometimes it makes them upset.” So instead, I decided I was just going to help her forget about her bad day like I did for Mommy sometimes.
“Hi, Toni,” I said happily. “I though it’d make you smile if I told you about when Chad and me caught the hugest crawl dad in the creek a couple days ago…”
I kept talking, and Chad started telling her some stories, too. Then, she really smiled at us and stopped biting her nails. And I was right. She did look better with a smile. I knew Daddy wouldn’t let me down.