Page 14 of Her Dragon Daddy Disaster
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t. He was my baby! How could anyone make me leave him? It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t fair …
“Mommy, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Tiny little arms wrapped themselves around my neck as my four-year-old son gave me his version of a bear hug.
Pieces of my heart shattered, falling in slow motion. How could this really be the last time I’d ever get to hold him? It didn’t seem real.
Outside, a deep-throated rumbling engine came to a halt at the bottom of the driveway.
“No,” I whispered, eyes darting to my wrist. Was it that time already?
My mother appeared in the hallway, her eyes glistening as she dabbed at them with a tissue. We exchanged looks. Our goodbyes had been said the night before as I cried into her shoulder like I was the child again. Though to her, I suppose I always would be.
None of us spoke. It was as if we knew that doing so would shatter the moment and make it real.
“Hey! You! Give that back!”
A ball of fur came hurtling through the door from the study, holding something that looked suspiciously like a slipper. My father came barreling after it, holding something over his head that may have been the other slipper. They came and went in a flash.
“At least things will be interesting around here,” I said, trying to be humorous.
“If there’s one word I’ve learned to use to describe your father over the years, it would be ‘interesting,’” my mother said with a wry smile, though it faded swiftly, leaving us with the growl of the Chevy Suburban waiting for me on the street.
It was time. I locked eyes with my mom, who nodded and stepped forward, arms outstretched to take Jakub from me.
“You go with your grandma now, okay?” I said. “You be a good boy for her and do what she says. Do you understand?”
Jakub nodded. But as I tried to pass him over, he grew squirmy and thrust his arms out toward me. “Mommy, please don’t go! I don’t want you to go. I’ll be good. I promise. Stay!”
“Oh, Jake!” I sobbed, gathering him back up in the biggest hug I could muster.
Behind him, my mother turned away, but not before I saw fresh tears rolling down her cheeks too.
“I love you,” I said, stroking and kissing his head. “You know that, right? You know your mommy loves you?”
“Love you, too,” he said, squeezing tighter.
Four years old or not, I could have sworn he understood the situation better than I gave him credit for. He was always surprising me like that, showing deeper comprehension than it seemed on the surface.
“I’ll love you now and tomorrow, forever and always. You’ll always be my baby boy,” I half-sang into his ear.
We stayed that way for a few more minutes. There was no honk from the Suburban, but even if there was, they could go to hell and wait a bit longer. I wasn’t leaving until I had to. Every extra second with Jakub was worth it.
But as with all things, time eventually comes for them.
There was no spoken signal, no noise from outside. Just a feeling. A quiet notice from somewhere deep inside that “It’s time.”
“Okay, baby.” I set him down, where he proceeded to cling to his grandmother’s leg. “You be good. Make sure to help your Grampa with SuperPawMegaDog, okay? He looks like he needs you.”
Like I need you.
“Uh-huh. I will.” He nodded as seriously as a four-year-old could.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I bent over and kissed him on the crown of his head. Some of my tears splashed across his hair. He didn’t say anything. Neither did I.
