Family Night

 

by Nick

 

“Alex!” my dad called out as he climbed the stairs with the phone in his hand. “You have a phone call buddy.”

 

I walked out of the bathroom, where I had spent the last hour or so doing my hair and took the phone from him with a grin.

 

“Hello?” I said, cocking my head to one side so I could use both hands to twist the cap back on my tube of Spiker Distortion, which was what I used on a daily basis to keep my hair looking its best.

 

“Hey baby,” my boyfriend Jacob swooned, inciting a smile from me. “Are they there yet?”

 

“Not yet, boo,” I answered with a sigh. “We can’t keep him out too late tonight either. My grandma and grandpa want him in no later than nine.”

 

“That stinks,” Jacob spat, and I agreed. We were taking my Uncle Jason trick or treating by ourselves, and we had originally made plans to keep him out as late as we possibly could. My Uncle Jason was five, and Jacob and I had offered to take him trick or treating with us for a few reasons.

 

The first reason we were taking him out was because we knew he wasn’t going to have any fun if my grandparents took him. They had this idea in their minds that he was two, not five, and that they could get away with taking him to six or seven houses. The year before he threw a fit when they took him to a few houses on their block then walked him home. They heard about it for weeks afterward, too. Still, when I asked them what their plans were for him this year, my grandma told me they were going to do the same thing. I rolled my eyes and asked her to let Jacob and I take him out.

 

The second reason we offered to take him out was selfish on my part, for sure. I had plans to raid his candy bag. You see, here in Virginia Beach, it’s against the law to go trick or treating once you turn thirteen. I didn’t get that rule, but I knew I had to abide by it. When my cousin first moved in with us he was thirteen, but he was new in the neighborhood and no one knew his real age. He easily passed for nine, and he scored big on his first Halloween in Virginia.

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob and I weren’t that lucky, though. We were well known in our neighborhood. We spent hours on end in the fall raking leaves and mowing grass for people who were willing to let us. It was a nice way to earn some money, and we did a good job too. Still, we were too old to trick or treat, so we had suffered the year before.

 

However, this year was different, for sure. Jason was a little trooper, and he loved spending time with his favorite nephew. He would do anything to spend some time with me, and I felt the same way about him. I loved him so much, and I made sure I told him every time I saw him.

 

My Uncle was a very late arrival for my grandparents. In fact, he was born exactly fourteen days after I turned nine. I was sure I was going to be jealous of him, too, but I wasn’t. He was a colicky baby, and no one seemed able to make him stop crying. No one, that is, but yours truly. Well, my dad had a way with him too, but I like to think I was a little better at soothing him than my dad. I was devastated when my grandparents bought a house in York County and moved across the water, thirty miles away.

 

I can remember the first time I was holding him and he smiled at me. I had never seen him smile in his life, and yet, there he was, giving me the warmest, most loving smile I could have imagined seeing. I fell in love with him right then and there, and ever since, I’ve called him the Special One.

 

Which brings me to my third reason for wanting to take him trick or treating with Jacob....the two of us have a dream of raising a son of our own. We know that biologically it’s not likely. We would have to find a way to infuse both of our DNA and then fertilize an egg. As amazing as science seems to be, I doubt we’ll see that in our future.

 

So, we know that we’ll have to adopt, but then we have to overcome the ridiculous adoption code in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which prohibits gay and lesbian couples from adopting children. It’s almost amusing that the same people who seek to keep gay and lesbian couples from adopting children also seek to prevent women from having abortions.  I guess they want to keep kids in institutions until their eighteen and then expect them to find a way to fit into a normal lifestyle when they have to leave. They refuse to see that most of these people only know how to be institutionalized, and will most likely go to prison. It doesn’t always happen that way, but it happens too often for people to stay idle on the issue.

 

Taking Jason trick or treating was a small way for us to experience that dream. I loved it when my stepmom would be baby-sitting him for my grandparents and I’d take him to my room. Jacob and I would sit with him and watch cartoons, play Memory, Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land with him, or even style his hair. He was always a perfect angel for us, too. He never acted out, and he just wanted to hang out with us.

 

He can dance, too. If you want to see a little dude get down, put something funky on and clear the floor. He has some good moves, and any Ludacris song will do. He also does good with Earth Wind and Fire, especially the song Fantasy. I’m almost willing to bet that he’ll be a star athlete in high school based on his already impressive stamina and his love of all activities physical.

 

He plays baseball, soccer and pops a mean wheelie on his bike.  I’ve tried to show him how to ride one out, but that’s mainly resulted in him falling off, so we’re giving it a break for now. Instead, I’ve been teaching him how to work up a loogi and spit it straight up into the air, then get underneath it and catch it in his mouth. My grandma doesn’t particularly care for what I’m teaching him, but I know she knows that if he doesn’t learn it from me, he’ll learn it somewhere else.

 

“He’s all boy,” my grandpa always says proudly whenever Jason does something gross.

 

“He’s becoming so beastly,” my grandma always counters him at the same time.

 

My grandparents, Matt and Shelby Massie, buried my mom when I was six months old. My parents were fifteen and sixteen when I was born, respectively. My mom never saw her sixteenth birthday, and my grandparents were devastated. She was their only child, and I was the only part of her they had left.

 

I was born in California, but after my mom died, they moved across the country. My dad and I had visited them a few times, but they never came back to California. It was too painful for them, and they lived with guilt for whatever they thought they hadn’t done to prevent my mother’s death.

 

When I was eight, we visited them for two weeks in Virginia Beach. They had recently moved there from Pensacola, Florida, and while we were there, they announced that Jason was on his way. The other thing that happened while we were there was that they had talked my dad into moving to Virginia Beach so we could all be close.

 

Jason was a week late, and my grandmother had a particularly hard pregnancy, especially toward the end of her term. She was looking forward to delivering Jason on February 28, 2000, but wound up carrying him until March 7^th.  She was especially moody toward my grandfather during that week. We lived right next door to them, and I could hear her yelling at him from my bedroom at night. I was scared they were going to divorce or something, too. I just didn’t understand all of the mood swings that came from being pregnant, but luckily, my grandpa did.

 

This year Halloween fell on a Monday, as luck would have it. I knew that Jason was going to be unmanageable for my grandparents and his teacher the next day, but I was more concerned with what I was doing that night. I wanted him to remember the time I took him trick or treating for the rest of his life. I had plans to make it as fun as possible, and to make sure he enjoyed himself.

 

 At about ten minutes to six, my grandparents showed up with Jason. He got out of the car and he looked so cute in his Spiderman costume. My grandma handed him a small pumpkin shaped pail, but my grandpa held his hand out, taking it from him and replacing it with a large pillowcase. I giggled as I watched my grandma smack him on the arm while Jason, grinning from ear to ear, moved up the walkway to the front door, where I was waiting with open arms.

 

“Alex!” he exclaimed, running up to me for a hug as soon as he saw me.

 

“Hi special one,” I gushed as I knelt down and wrapped my arms around him and gave him a long hug. “Are you ready to score big tonight?”

 

Jason’s expression was all business as he nodded and held up his pillowcase. My dad and stepmom were in the kitchen, but the sound of Jason’s voice drew them to the front door, where they spotted him and smothered him in hugs and kisses. When my grandparents came inside, they all took turns snapping pictures of him in his costume while we waited on Jacob. About ten minutes later, Jacob rolled up on his bike. After he cooed over Jason, we got our last minute drill about not letting go of his hand and watching for cars, and then we were off.

 

We started on our own block, hitting our neighbors first, knowing that they’d recognize Jacob and I and most likely reward Jason with the optimum amount of candy. From there, we went down as many side streets as we could, joining the thick crowd of trick or treaters as they streamed up and down the sidewalk.

 

As we were making our way from one street to another, I took the time to glance over at Jacob, who looked like a proud dad walking with his family. To be honest, that’s exactly how I was feeling too. It was just the way I had imagined, too. We were each holding one of Jason’s hands, and he was smiling and behaving as we went from house to house, letting Jason ring the doorbell and listening as he called out, “Trick or Treat.” His bag was filling up quickly, and I knew he wanted some candy, so I devised a plan.

 

“Jason, you know I have to test it first, right?” I advised him. “You better let Jacob and I try it out to make sure it’s safe.”

 

“Okay Alex,” he said sweetly, offering me his bag of goodies with no argument. I greedily shoved my hand in his bag, grabbing as much as I could, then I held it out to Jacob, who cut his eyes at me and took one piece from the bag. He unwrapped it and examined it carefully, then he held it out for Jason, who smiled and accepted it.

 

I just shrugged and figured it was his loss, not mine. I put the candy I hadn’t eaten yet in my coat pocket and snacked on it while we were on the last street. When we had gone as far as we could, I looked at my watch and realized it was exactly nine o’ clock, so we turned and headed home. As we were walking, Jacob looked over at me and smiled, then he motioned his head down at Jason, who was yawning.

 

“Are you getting sleepy, Special One?” I asked, a little concerned that we had tuckered him out. When he finished his yawn, he nodded and handed me his bag, which I tied off at the end and carried for him.

 

I felt him let go of my hand and watched as Jacob lifted him up from behind, setting him on his shoulders to carry him the rest of the way back to my house. Jason cupped his hands under Jacob’s chin and held on while the two of us held hands. I let my mind wander a little bit, imagining that I was getting a glimpse of my future. My husband and I, taking our little one trick or treating. We’d make sure he got to go to as many houses as possible, then when he was getting tired, we carried him home.

 

When we made it back to our block, my parents were sitting on the front porch with my grandparents, and they were sharing a laugh about something. When they spotted us, they all smiled. I was still holding Jacob’s hand, and Jason was smiling supremely as he rode up.  My dad got up and met us in the driveway, holding out his hands and taking Jason from atop my boyfriend’s shoulders and into his arms.

 

“Did you have fun tonight, buddy?” my dad asked as he grabbed the bag of candy from me and handed it to Jason, who was nodding sleepily and resting his head on my dad’s shoulders.

 

“We went to lots of houses, Uncle Steve,” Jason said in a quiet voice as my dad carried him back to the porch, where he took a seat and held my uncle in his lap.

 

“Let’s see what you got, buddy,” my grandpa said as he opened the pillowcase and inspected it.

 

“I smell candy on your breath, buddy,” my dad said knowingly.

 

“Alex and Jacob checked it first,” he told them, and my grandma and stepmom smiled at us. I knew that deep down, my grandma was probably a little upset that we had given him candy, but I knew that my grandfather would have done it anyway.

 

We all sat out on the porch for a while, talking about past Halloweens and speculating about the weather. When the time came for my grandparents to take Jason home, I watched sadly as they loaded him up in the car and drove off. As soon as I watched them turn left off of the street, I sighed heavily and thought about how badly I wanted Jacob and I to have a family of our own someday.

 

Instead of riding his bike home alone, I rode on Jacob’s handlebars back to his place. When we got there, we sat out on the porch for a while, and it felt nice to be alone with him. There was a cool breeze sweeping over us, and his arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulder as I laid my head against his.

 

“Are we going to have a family together?” I asked him, looking straight out into the night.

 

“Of course we are baby,” he said confidently. “I promise you we’re going to have a family, and I’m going to take care of all of us.”

 

“How many kids will we have, boo?” I asked, feeling his arm tighten around my shoulders.

 

“Six,” he said, and I knew he pulled a random number out of nowhere, but I was still touched.

 

“You’d be willing to have six kids with me?” I asked lovingly.

 

“I’d have twenty six kids with you,” he said softly. “I love you Alex.”

 

“I love you too, Jacob,” I said, turning my head to face him, then pressing my lips to his. When our lips parted, I smiled at him and sighed contentedly, then I laid my head on his shoulder.

 

“Thank you for tonight,” I said, grateful for the experience he had shared with me. He responded by kissing me lightly on the cheek and wrapping both of his arms around me, holding me tightly while I dreamt of the Halloween night when we would be taking our own kids trick or treating.

 

“You know something,” he said in a sweet tone as we sat there. “We’re sitting here dreaming about our family, but we’re there, Alex. You and I, we are a family. My parent’s and your’s, and your grandma and grandpa, and Jason; We’re already a family, babe.”

 

“You’re right,” I said, the reality of what he said starting to dawn on me. He was right. I had spent so much of my evening dreaming about my idea of what a family was supposed to be that I almost missed it. Jacob lifted my chin and puckered his lips, so I met him half way and as our kiss lingered, I closed my eyes and reminisced about the night we spent trick or treating as a family.

 

© 2006 NickolasTaylor Web Publishing. All rights reserved.