Chapter Three

Ty came running towards Chris as soon as he spotted him by the door. “Hi, daddy!!” he exclaimed, waving a paper in the air as his arms flailed about in excitement. He promptly ran away again, toward the back corner of the room where a sort of shelf stood, holding what looked like various jackets and bags. Ty grabbed his own backpack and once again ran off.

Chris stayed by the door the entire time, mostly because he wasn't sure how many times Ty would move around the room and he figured it would be easier to just stay where he was, though he had also spotted Mrs. Carter aiding her son, and he didn't want to have to go near her.

“Come on, let's go now,” Ty commanded as he walked by, grabbing Chris's hand and refusing to stop. Chris found the difference in volume between the classroom and the hallway to be quite impressive. The hall was completely empty, and while the muffled sounds of the class could be heard, it was almost like a whisper now.

“You seem to be in a rush to leave,” Chris meagerly noted. Ty looked up at him and flashed an almost crazed smile.

“I have something to show to someone,” he vaguely replied, quickening his pace as he dragged Chris toward the exit. He gave no further detail, and before Chris could ask anything else, Ty released his hand and ran to his destination.

Ty stopped in front of the desk by the doors, and he stood on his toes so he could see properly. “Hello, Tristan,” he beamed at the dark-haired man. He put his hand on the desk, making sure that the paper he was holding was noticeable.

“Hey, Ty,” Tristan kindly replied. “What do you have there?”

“Oh, it's a drawing I did in class today,” Ty casually answered. He shoved the paper a little further across the desk. “Wanna see it?”

“Sure.” Tristan took the paper from Ty and examined it. Ty stood back some so that he could see without having to put so much pressure on the balls of his feet. Chris slowly walked up to them, feeling more nervous than he could ever recall feeling. Ty made him rather anxious sometimes. “This is really good, Ty. I'm guessing it's supposed to be...”

Tristan trailed off as he pointed his eyes at Chris. Ty nodded his head diligently. “Ms. L told us to draw a picture of our hero, and she said that a hero is someone who you look up to, only not just because they're tall, but because you want to be like them and they are good people.” Ty took a short pause, just enough time to shrug his shoulders. “And I figured there was only one person like that who I know of.”

“It's quite a likeness, don't you think?” Tristan asked Chris, flipping the drawing around for him to see. In the middle of the paper was what looked like a large smiley face, with giant blue eyes and an abundance of curly, light-colored hair. Chris gaped when he saw it; he was certainly touched by Ty's choice, but he wasn't sure whether to smile or cry. He decided it would be better for him to smile, so he grinned and looked down at Ty, but he couldn't find the right words to say.

“Yeah, my daddy is definitely my hero,” Ty said plainly, once again bringing his voice that was his attempt at being subtle. “Because I wanna be like him. He's the smartest man I know, and he's also really nice, and really funny, and really handsome, too.”

Tristan leaned over the desk to bring himself a bit closer to Ty, and he held out the drawing for Ty to take back. “I think he's a good choice for a hero,” he quietly said. Ty gave a sly smile and he turned to Chris.

“Tristan thinks you're a good choice for a hero,” he told Chris. Chris stared at Ty with wide eyes, and he had the feeling that a rather obvious flush was spreading across his cheeks.

“So I heard,” Chris mumbled. Ty smiled at him for a few seconds longer, then he grabbed Chris's hand again.

“We have to go home now,” Ty said to Tristan, “so we will be seeing you tomorrow, Tristan. Bye!”

“Bye, guys, I hope you both have a lovely day,” Tristan merrily replied. He had been looking at Ty, but he quickly looked over at Chris. Chris met his gaze, and even though it frightened him, he kept his eyes locked with Tristan's for what felt like hours. He could feel himself involuntarily smiling, and he found it impossible to stop.

And when it all did actually end, and Chris and Ty finally left the school, Chris no longer felt nervous or embarrassed or worried. He felt oddly confident, and determined.

“Daddy, you have to tell him,” Ty urged as Chris helped him into the car. “I did such a good job today telling him all that good stuff about you, and so there is no way that you can just let it go to waste, right? Besides, did you even see the way he smiled at you? Listen, you have to tell him, OK? Do it for me, please?” Ty stretched out the last word, stuck out his bottom lip and gave Chris his pleading look with his eyes as large as he could make them.

Despite his confidence, Chris found it a bit difficult to make the promise to Ty. He sighed, and took a few moments before speaking. “Tomorrow, Ty. I'll tell him tomorrow. Does that sound good to you?”

“Yes, thank you,” Ty calmly replied. He stretched his tiny arm out and placed his hand on Chris's forearm. “You will not regret it.”

“I better not,” Chris joked. Ty laughed a little, not because he thought what Chris had said was funny (it wasn't, really), but because he just couldn't help it. It was an oddly deep sort of laugh, diabolical almost, like his master plan was finally being fulfilled, which in a way it was. Chris sighed and rolled his eyes.

The rest of the day seemed to speed by in a blur; Chris could hardly recall doing much of anything before he and Ty were back at the school the next morning. He wished the day hadn't gone by so fast, because he never did enjoy the feeling of butterflies in his stomach and at that particular moment he could feel nothing else. To make it worse, Ty vividly remembered Chris's promise from the day before. Chris was obviously aware of Ty's great memory, so he shouldn't have been surprised, but he had been hoping that there might have been just a slight chance he would forget.

Ty didn't say anything to Chris, but the look he gave him before Chris left the classroom more than made up for his lack of words. Chris could feel his hands start to tremble as he walked through the empty hallway towards the exit. His heart beat faster, and he considered just walking on, right through the big glass doors and pretending that he didn't see Tristan at all.

“H-Hey Tristan,” Chris forced himself to say as he stopped in front of Tristan's desk. His throat was dangerously dry now and he thought he sounded more like a frog than he should have. Tristan looked up from his work and immediately smiled.

Maybe Ty actually is right, Chris thought. Maybe. He was a pretty smart kid, after all.

“Hey Chris,” Tristan cheerfully replied, and Chris began to feel his confidence slowly return. Then something changed, and for a few brief moments Tristan looked at him, slightly conflicted. “Uh, I was wondering,” Tristan uncertainly and quickly began, like he was afraid that he might suddenly forget what he was going to say, “maybe, you know, you and I could go out sometime. On a date.”

Chris had temporarily stopped breathing, and he was taken aback so much that he almost forgot to answer. “Yeah, definitely,” he said, nodding with as much enthusiasm as possible to make up for his delay. He smiled at Tristan, and though his hands continued to shake, he felt much less nervous now. It was a joyous sort of trembling.

“Well, I'm free, like, any time- you know, except during school hours,” Tristan waved his hand through the air, “so... whenever's good for you.”

Chris thought for a few moments. His schedule was basically empty all the time. “I suppose I'll need a few days notice,” he said, tentatively rubbing the back of his neck, “since I'll have to drop Ty off at his mother's and she'd probably like to know ahead of time.”

“Right.” Tristan stared off into the distance, biting his lip while he thought for a while. Chris tried not to stare, but he couldn't help it. “How about Thursday? Or Friday, of course, since that's probably better for y-”

“Thursday's great,” Chris interrupted, feeling overcome with impatience. He was relieved to see that his quickness hadn't bothered Tristan at all. In fact, it seemed like Tristan was experiencing the same eagerness.

“Thursday it is,” he brightly agreed. Then he quickly looked down at his desk.“But I think I should be getting back to work now, I don't want to lose my job.”

“Oh, yeah, that wouldn't be good,” Chris said with a small laugh. “I'll see you later.” Chris slowly began to make his way towards the exit, and he was very aware of Tristan's eyes following him the entire time. When he did finally make it outside, he had to stop and make sure that what had just happened had actually happened and wasn't simply a daydream of his. He nearly squealed with joy when he decided that it was the real world he was currently living in.

Instead he walked to his car and squealed there, in case anyone had been around before who could have overheard him. Then he decided to stop acting like a teenage girl and drive home.

He had been more productive over the prior weekend than he had expected, and so he had already finished his work for that week. Having nothing else that he was required to do, Chris decided to write more of a story that he had been trying to write for several months.

It was roughly halfway done, but Chris had hit a snag and ran out of inspiration. Writer's block was always frustrating, even though he knew it would pass eventually. And now, filled with excitement, Chris felt that itch in his fingers, the one that could only be cured by writing. During the drive back to the apartment he started wording out the next part in his head, though he wasn't entirely sure how he had left the story.

His computer couldn't load fast enough, and so for a few minutes he resorted to scribbling down his thoughts on some scrap paper sitting beside the tower. He continued to write by hand even after the computer was ready, mostly because he was on a roll and he didn't want to forget what he was going to write. He typed it up once he had written what he planned, and then he figured it wouldn't be such a bad idea to take a quick break. His throat was still rather dry.

In the kitchen, as he grabbed a glass of water, Chris looked at the outside of the refrigerator, which was covered in pictures. The newest edition was the picture that Ty had drawn the day before. It was becoming increasingly frightening the longer Chris stared at it. The blue dots for eyes watched him no matter where he stepped, and the smile was rather creepy. It was like looking in some twisted sort of mirror. He tried to pull his eyes away, but he was having difficulty doing so. A flash out of the corner of his eye finally dragged his attention away.

The red light on the phone flickered, indicating that there was an unheard message. Chris walked over to the machine and hit a button. It beeped and the message began to play.

For a few seconds Chris wondered who had called, but he found his answer very quickly. “Good morning, Chris, this is Penny calling.” He was still surprised, though, because it was not often that Penny phoned him, especially not since he had lost touch with Jonathan.

“I just wanted to let you know that Lorraine and Mitch will be out of town for a while,” the message continued. “Apparently Mitch's mother is not doing so well, so they'll be staying with her for a few weeks. They left only an hour ago, in quite a rush, otherwise I expect they would have called themselves. And... I don't have Kirsten's number, so if you could tell her, it would be greatly appreciated. I hope you and Ty are both well, and, you know, don't be shy. You're both welcome to drop by anytime. Well, that's it, really, so have a pleasant day. Goodbye.”

Chris picked up the phone and thought for a few moments. He always had trouble remembering Kirsten's phone number. Which was why he had written it and taped the paper to the side of the phone, but he also had trouble remembering that he had done that. It wasn't until he looked back at the base hanging on the wall that he noticed it. He rolled his eyes and mentally smacked himself, then quickly pressed the buttons on the phone accordingly.

“Hello?” Kirsten's less than enthused voice answered.

“Hi, Kirsten–”

“Oh, Chris, do you think you could make this quick? I have class in twenty minutes.”

Chris made a face, glad that Kirsten couldn't see him. “Yeah, I just called to let you know that apparently your grandmother is ill or something and your parents are staying with her for a while, so they won't be around.”

“Oh man, that sucks,” she replied, though her tone suggested that the news hardly meant anything to her. “Well, OK. Is that all?”

“No, actually. I need you to watch Ty Thursday night.”

“Thursday?” she sneered.

“Yes,” Chris answered with slight annoyance. He always hated how snippy Kirsten could be, and how seemingly unwilling she was to take care of her own son for longer than five minutes. “It'll only be for a few hours, though.”

“Why do you need me to watch him?” Kirsten asked in an almost mocking sort of tone, like she knew what the answer was going to be and it amused her.

Why do you keep asking questions when you wanted to 'make this quick'? Chris thought. “Because I've got a date. Can you do it or what?” he replied.

“Ooh, a date, how special.” Kirsten giggled for a few seconds, but hearing no retort from Chris she decided to stop. She sighed loudly, her breath causing a static sound through the phone. “Fine, I'll watch him.”

“Thank you.” Though he knew he shouldn't be so rude, he hung up the phone without saying another word. He shook off his frustration and headed back to his computer. After adding several sentences to what he had written earlier, an idea popped its way into his head.

Chris ran to the phone once more, though his memory did not serve him any more than it had last time. Luckily he had the ability to play Penny's message again and to extract her number from that. As soon as the machine gave him his answer, he shut off the message and quickly dialed while the numbers were still fresh in his mind.

“Hey,” he beamed into the phone. “How would you like some company this afternoon?”

And so it was then arranged that Chris and Ty would stop by Penny's house after Ty was finished with school. Chris decided not to inform Ty of this, though, which led to Ty becoming rather confused on what was supposed to be the drive home.

“Daddy, where are we going?” he asked in a small voice as they passed by the building with the bright green awning, which always meant they were leaving town. “I thought we were going home.”

“We are going to visit someone,” Chris vaguely responded. Ty scrunched up his nose, trying to think. He was certain that they weren't going to visit his mother, since he knew that she too went to school, and it wasn't late enough for her to be done yet. But he couldn't think of anyone else off the top of his head.

“Is it someone I know?” he inquired.

“Yes.” There was always the possibility that they would be visiting his grandparents, but Ty didn't think that was right, either; since they were Kirsten's parents (as far as Ty was concerned, he had no other grandparents), Ty never visited them without Kirsten being there as well. “It's someone you haven't seen in a long time.”

Ty struggled to think of the identity of this mysterious person for the rest of the ride. Even when they had pulled up to the house he could not come up with the answer. The house did look very familiar to him, though. As he walked up the porch steps he vaguely recalled being led up to the house by a tall man with brown hair.

Ty gasped loudly, and at that moment Chris knew he realized where they were. He smiled a little as he brought his hand up and knocked on the door.

“Wait, daddy,” Ty urgently said in a hushed voice, trying with all his might to push Chris over to the side of the door. “Go over here!”

“Why?” Chris asked, though he did as Ty requested and stepped off to the side.

“You'll see,” Ty sneakily replied as he stood in front of the door and grinned widely. A few moments later the door opened, and Ty jumped up a bit, throwing his hands in the air and shouting, “Hi, Penny!!”

“Hello, Ty,” Penny cheerfully answered. “I'm very glad you two could make it.”

“Two? Oh no, it's just me,” Ty said. He snorted a bit as he tried to contain his laughter, and he shot a furtive glance at Chris. “Yeah, I came here all by myself.”

“Oh, really?” Penny tried to sound impressed. She folded her arms across her chest and frowned a little. “That's a shame, I was looking forward to seeing your father as well.”

“Well, he's at home.” Another snort, another look in Chris's direction. Ty was trying really hard not to give it away. It took almost everything he had to keep up the facade. “Maybe... maybe next time he'll come, too.”

“That would certainly be nice,” Penny said. She let her arms fall to her side, though she held her hand out to Ty. “Why don't you come on in, then? I have some snacks prepared in the kitchen. We can sit and have a chat.”

“OK!” Ty exclaimed. Then he leaned forward a bit, and in a giggly voice he said, “But I have something to tell you.”

Penny also leaned forward and lowered her voice a bit. “What is it?”

“I didn't come here by myself,” Ty whispered, shaking his head lightly. Penny dropped her jaw and acted like the news was a total shock to her. Ty finally let his laughter out. He stood back a little and waved to Chris, in a way that he thought was discreet. Chris took it as his cue to step forward and show himself.

“Surprise,” he said with feigned enthusiasm. Penny smiled at him, and Ty completely lost his marbles. His laughter turned into a sort of howling shriek. Penny and Chris watched him for a while, sharing their own laughter for a different reason. After a while, Chris put his hand on Ty's back and said, “All right, kid, I think that's enough.”

“Oh, OK, daddy,” Ty said as he tried to calm himself down. Penny held the door open for Chris and Ty, then shut it behind her once they were all inside. Chris led Ty down the small hallway and into the kitchen. Penny brought over a few bowls from the counter and placed them in the middle of the table. Chris and Ty sat down on one side of the table, Penny on the other.

Ty placed his hands on the table's surface in an attempt to raise himself up high enough to see. Chris laughed at him, then pulled him into his lap. “Is that better?” he asked Ty.

“Uh huh,” Ty happily replied. He put his hands on the table again, for a lack of anything else to do with them.

“Ty, it looks like you've grown quite a bit since I last saw you,” Penny said. Ty's eyes seemed to light up at the statement.

“Really?” he said in an awed tone. Then he lifted his chin up and grinned smugly. “One day I'm gonna be as big as daddy.”

“You've got quite a way to go,” Penny told him, “but I think you'll get there. If you've got your father's genes, certainly. Although, Kirsten's family is on the tall side, too.”

“Yeah,” Ty began in his matter-of-fact voice, “I'm probably gonna be at least six feet tall. If not more. Right, daddy?” Ty tried to turn around to see his father, though he didn't have much success. “I'm gonna be a giant.”

“You'll be the next Godzilla, Ty,” Chris said. Ty shot him a quizzical look.

“What's that?” he said, scrunching up his nose. Chris smiled and shook his head.

“Never mind.” Ty shrugged his tiny shoulders and faced Penny. Chris leaned to his left a little so that he could see past the massive mop of hair on Ty's head. “So, Penny, what have you been up to?”

“Oh, you know. This and that.” Penny explained for roughly five minutes all that she had done apart from work in the nearly ten months since they had last seen each other. She told him about the garden she had started growing in the backyard earlier that year. Then she talked a little about some things she had done to redecorate the house a bit, since all the decor had been the same for the past ten years, and she had frankly grown tired of it.

After Penny had informed them of her goings-on, she asked the same of them. Ty became very excited when he was able to talk about school. He mentioned that the other kids in his class weren't very nice to him, but that he didn't let them get to him.

“Oh, oh! And there is this man at my school, too, and his name is Tristan,” Ty quickly said, then he laughed just a little. “Daddy likes him.”

“Daddy's got a date with him Thursday night,” Chris casually added. Ty gasped loudly and whipped his head around.

“And you didn't tell me?!?!” he incredulously asked. He stared at Chris for a few seconds with his mouth wide open, then he closed it and waved his hand. “Ah, who cares, this is wonderful news!” Then his overactive mind took over and he turned back to Penny. “Penny, can I have a drink? I am really... um...” Ty looked at Chris, and in a low voice he asked, “What's that big word that means really thirsty?”

“Parched?” Chris replied.

“Yeah,” Ty said to Penny, “I'm that.”

“All right, Ty. Why don't you come with me and you can see what I have in the fridge.” Penny stood up, and as she did so, Ty slid down to the floor. With nothing better to do, Chris figured he would join them as well.

Ty settled on having just a glass of water. Penny asked Chris if he would like anything, and he politely declined.

“Who is that?” Ty asked, pointing to a picture that was being held onto the surface of the refrigerator by a plain yellow magnet. Chris looked at the picture of his younger self and Jonathan, both decked out in their caps and gowns. At first Chris thought Ty had been asking about Jonathan, but he soon realized that he was actually referring to the small child in Chris's arms.

“That's you,” Chris told him. “You were almost two when that was taken.”

“That's me? I was so tiny!” Ty took a sip of his drink, examined the picture carefully, then nodded firmly. “Yep, I'm definitely going to be super tall when I get bigger.”