By R. L. Keller
The
sound of the back screen door slamming on the house next door to theirs caused
Naomi McDonald to pause and glance out the window over the sink as she cleaned
up from the light lunch she’d fixed for herself and her husband, Lawrence – who
pretty much everyone called Cap’n Mac.
“Looks like Helen just told Lee that she had to leave for an assignment
and won’t be able to take him to the new aquarium in Boston this weekend, like
she promised.”
“Taking
it badly, is he?” Mac sighed as he finished his coffee and set the cup on the
small kitchen table, where he was still sitting.
“Uhm,”
Naomi confirmed. “Took
off on his bike like the devil was after him.”
“Teenaged
demons are the pits,” Mac told her.
She
sent him a frown. “How would you
know? You haven’t been a teenager for
fifty years.” The pair shared a loving
grin, despite the seeming reprimand, before she got thoughtful. “Lee’s had to put up with so much in his fourteen
years.”
Mac
nodded. “And he’ll no doubt deal with
this much the same way he deals with life in general. He’ll get ticked, work it off, be back in a
couple hours and act like nothing out of the ordinary happened. He’ll take care of everything at the house
that he can, check with us if he needs something that he can’t handle – which
would be rare – feed and take care of himself in the process, and not say a
word – to anyone – about the disappointment he has to be feeling. He’s been planning this trip for weeks.”
Naomi
nodded, picking up her husband’s cup and carrying it to the sink. “Helen herself was upset that she was going
to have to cancel, when she told me this morning that she had to leave. But its just one of those things – either she
goes right now or she misses the story.
And she can’t afford to do that.
What she gets from Lee’s dad’s Navy death benefits only go so far.”
“Which
Lee understands,” Mac said. “But…”
“He’s
still fourteen,” Naomi finished the thought.
“Yep,”
Mac confirmed. They were both quiet for
a bit.
“We
could take him,” Naomi said softly.
“We
could,” Mac nodded. “But it wouldn’t be
the same.”
It
was Naomi’s turn to nod. “Helen tries so
hard to support Lee in his love for anything to do with the Navy, and oceans. Well,” she smiled, “water in general.” The pair shared another grin. “Even though she cries a little inside,
because that’s what cost her her husband.”
“And
Lee, for all his youth, understands that she has mixed emotions about how he
sees his future.”
“But,
he’s fourteen,” they said together.
“When
does Helen leave?” Mac asked. “And did
she know how long that she’d be gone?”
“In time to catch the 3 o’clock commuter flight to New York. And she wasn’t sure, but hoped to be back in
six or seven days. She said that she
should be able to take Lee to the aquarium the following weekend. But there was something special happening,
that’s why Lee wanted to go this Saturday?”
Mac
nodded. “There’s some sort of dedication
to one of the exhibits – Lee was all excited because of the guy who was doing
it. Can’t remember his
name. Some Navy
captain who’s heavy into marine research, according to Lee.”
“We
could take him,” Naomi said again.
And
again Mac nodded. “I’ll suggest it,” he
told his wife. “But I can just about
guarantee what he’ll say.”
“He
doesn’t want to be a bother. He’ll go
when his Mom has time to take him. End
of discussion,” Naomi muttered. She
looked at Mac. “He’s never a
bother,” she told him adamantly.
Mac
grinned. “I’m constantly reminding
myself that he’s fourteen. I’ve had
forty-year-old deck hands act less mature than him.” Mac was a retired commercial fisherman.
“He’s
had to grow up way too fast to be healthy,” was Naomi’s evaluation.
“And
you’d want him any different?” Mac asked all too innocently. Naomi threw her hand towel at him and they
both laughed.
They’d
been surprised when they bought the house next door to the young widow and her
son. They both enjoyed children,
although they’d never had any of their own.
The boy had been a bit shy at first.
But when summer rolled around he’d asked if they would like him to mow
their yard when he mowed his own. They’d
quickly learned the family dynamics: Lee’s father had been killed on active
duty with the Navy when Lee was five; his mother was a freelance writer who
traveled more and more; Lee’s grandfather, Helen’s dad, who looked after Lee
when his mother was gone had passed away almost two years ago.
There
had been absolutely no hesitation in them stepping into the role of
‘grandparents’ to the young boy, and allowing Helen a bit more freedom to take
assignments that took her away from home.
There was no doubt in either’s minds that Helen didn’t love her son
unconditionally, and knew that it bothered her to be away from him so
much. But it was also a great relief to
her that the MacDonald’s were willing to help, as she and her son did need the
money her writing brought in. Lee’s
maturity and independence had taken some getting used to, for sure. And they sometimes chuckled to themselves –
very carefully behind the young boy’s back – at his occasional surprise that
they treated him as if he were their own grandchild. But the relationships had eventually become
comfortable, all the way around.
The
couple noted when Lee’s mother left, waving and wishing her a productive trip,
and not to worry about Lee. Both noticed
a very quick look of sadness cross Helen’s face, but she covered it quickly and
drove off.
And
they noted when Lee returned – as predicted, about two hours after he left –
looking tired and sweaty, like he’d ridden his bike hard and fast during the
intervening time. But like his mother,
he’d waved with a small smile before heading into his house. They thought that he might come over, once
he’d cleaned up. Naomi thought about
inviting him over for dinner. But she
knew that Lee was perfectly capable of taking care of himself
and didn’t like, although he was always careful to keep it covered, if they
showed any indication that he needed ‘being watched over.’ So she and Mac ate dinner alone and left Lee
to his thoughts. He’d come over when he
felt like it.
They
were just about to head for bed when Naomi saw the young boy sitting quietly on
the grass in his back yard, looking up at the night sky. She pointed him out to Mac, who smiled and
told her that perhaps he’d get a little fresh air before he went to bed. She nodded, and Mac slipped quietly out the
front door. He meandered slowly between
the houses until he was about ten feet behind Lee. The boy didn’t seem to have heard him,
appearing lost in his own thoughts, and startled when
Mac told him gently, with humor in his voice, “Don’t let the pigeon drive the
bus.” When Lee sent him a look of total
puzzlement for the weird phrase, Mac laughed.
“Always did think that ‘penny for your thoughts’ got way overused.”
Lee
finally relaxed and sent the older man a shy smile. “Just looking for constellations,” the boy
told him. “For so long it was all that
sailors had to navigate by.”
“Still
use them,” Mac told him, and carefully settled his old bones down beside
Lee. “Not saying technology is a bad
thing.” Lee sent him a quick grin. “But there’s nothing wrong with a little
reliable back-up. The stars keep a
steady course, not messing you up with sudden changes in direction like a
mal-functioning compass might.”
He
saw Lee nod, but wasn’t surprised when he remained quiet. That had taken both he and his wife a little
getting used to, that such a youngster was still capable of keeping so much
bottled up inside. Naomi didn’t like it,
and often teased until Lee would start to tease back. But Mac had spent enough years on the oceans
that he recognized the comfortable silence Lee often slipped into, content with
his own thoughts. Mac didn’t
interrupt. Lee would express himself –
or not – on his own timetable. So the
pair sat quietly for some minutes. When
the boy did speak, Mac was surprised at the touch of anger noticeable in his
words.
“Why
did it have to be this weekend?” It was
said softly as Lee wrapped his arms around knees that he’d drawn up against his
chest.
Mac
answered carefully. “Sometimes we get to
choose our own course. Sometimes it’s
chosen for us.”
“It’s
not fair,” came miserably back.
“No,
it’s not,” Mac agreed. “But sometimes
you have to stand back and look at the entire map to see what the proper
options are for a safe journey.”
Again
there was silence until Lee said softly, without the earlier anger, “She had to
go. Really good story ideas don’t come
along all the time. She needed to get to
it quick before someone else stole the idea.”
“Very
true,” Mac agreed.
“The
timing still sucks!”
Mac
very carefully didn’t laugh – that was not a phrase that he’d ever heard
the ever-correct young man use. “Yes, it
does.” He hesitated and almost didn’t
make the suggestion, knowing what the answer would be. But he did want Lee to know that he and Naomi
cared. “Mrs. Mac and I would be more
than happy to take you to the aquarium on Saturday.”
As
expected, the boy shook his head. “It’s
okay. I know that you don’t like to
drive that far anymore. I’ll wait until
Mom can take me.”
It
was Mac’s turn to shake his head gently as Lee went back to watching the night
sky. He’d totally forgotten that the boy
had heard him muttering one day, after getting back from a trip to Boston, that he was glad that he didn’t have to do that very
often; that the traffic was terrible! Leave
it to Lee to remember that, he told himself, and the pair once more sat in
silence for several minutes.
“Did
you know Mom got an award for that last story she published, about the
connections between the music and fashion industries in London?”
“No,
I hadn’t heard that,” Mac told him honestly.
Helen rarely talked about her work.
Just like Lee never talked about his own honors at school and with the
Sea Scouts program. It wasn’t in
either’s nature to brag about themselves.
“She works really hard to make the stories say just what she wants them
to.” Lee was thoughtful for a second. “I guess that way she gets more money for them,
and that also makes more people wanting her to do more stories.” Again he was quiet for a bit, and Mac didn’t
interrupt. “She does take really good
care of us,” Lee added so quietly that Mac almost didn’t hear him.
“Yes,
she does,” he agreed.
“I
know that she doesn’t like to be gone so much.”
“No,
she doesn’t.”
“I
guess…” Lee hesitated. “Sometimes you
have to do what you don’t want to, to make things be better.”
Mac
was always amazed at the young man’s mature logic. “Life is like that.”
“The
first sailors, they probably didn’t want to go off into the unknown, leaving
their families.”
“I’m
sure that they didn’t,” Mac agreed, although a little puzzled. Sometimes Lee was a bit hard to follow. But given a chance to explain, he always made
sense – eventually.
“But
if they wanted to make their world better, they needed to explore and expand
what they knew. So they took the
knowledge they had – the constants of the stars – and used that base to travel
and gain more knowledge, and build a bigger base. But they always had the stars to bring them
home. Well,” he sent Mac one of his
little mischievous grins, “until they hit the southern hemisphere.”
Mac
laughed. “But even then they charted as
they went, and could read them backwards to get back home.
“What
you don’t know can be scary.”
“Only
if you let it,” Mac told him. “You can
go forward more easily if you have faith in the base of knowledge that you’ve
built.” He paused before continuing. “But you also have to be prepared to adjust
that base, if further facts bring you different truths.”
“Like
they thought if they sailed too far from home, they’d fall off because the
world was flat.”
“Uh
huh,” Mac agreed.
“So,
maybe, they had to trust in themselves enough to be able to handle whatever they
found?”
“An excellent way to phrase it.”
“But…what about the regular sailors? I mean, sure, the captain believed in
himself.”
“Every
good captain instills in his crew confidence that he can lead them safely. If he can’t, well…you get people like Capt.
Bligh, and the crew turns to someone they can believe in.” Mac was always fascinated by the direction’s
Lee’s brain could take him in. He
sometimes found it a task to keep up, but it was always an interesting process. Naomi was right – perhaps Lee had had to grow
up too fast for one so young. But he was
also well grounded in his grasp of what was important. Mac could speculate that Lee was, in a round
about way, referring to his mother as the ‘captain’ and Lee as her ‘crew,’ and
he needed to have faith in her to lead their ‘ship’ safely. But, with Lee’s brain, Mac wasn’t totally
sure.
Mac
saw Lee give his wristwatch a glance, and then send Mac a quick grin. “We have a test on navigation tomorrow
morning at the Sea Scouts meeting. Guess
I’d better get to bed so I don’t oversleep.”
Mac
accepted the change in direction with an easy grin of his own. “Fine thing, have the best scout in the
program miss his assignment.” Mac wished
that he could match Lee’s ease at getting up, but he wasn’t too far behind. The pair said their good nights, and each
headed for their own house.
As
Mac entered the bedroom Naomi, who was sitting up reading, sent him a raised
eyebrow. “He’ll be just fine,” Mac told
her, and they both smiled.