I didn’t want to settle either.
 
 I’d always wanted to behead a Goliath.
 
 Like she’d said, she and I were going to make waves together.
 
 PART THREE
 
 THE FUTURE & FURTHER INTO THE FUTURE
 
 THE FUTURE
 
 THEA
 
 He’d been upset for the whole weekend, but had just kept it bottled up until now. He looked back at me, and I nodded. Taking a deep breath, he stood straighter, and, holding a piece of paper in his hands, he knocked.
 
 “Come in.”
 
 Tiptoeing to the door with the sippy cup top I’d just finished washing, I cracked the door a little more to hear. Levi glanced up from his desk, his glasses low on his nose.
 
 “Ulric? What is it?”
 
 Again, Ulric turned back to me, and I winked at him. He turned to his father and lifted the paper to read. Levi glanced at me, and I tried not smile, but I couldn’t help it. He rose from his desk, and walked around to our son.
 
 “I, Ulric Pierre-Od … Oid-ss—”
 
 “O-id-hche.” Levi helped him pronounce, still confused as to what was happening but patient, nonetheless.
 
 “I, Ulric Pierre-Oidche-Black, am quitting baseball...”
 
 “What?”
 
 “Levi,” I hissed out his name, and he glared at me so I glared right back. We battled through our eyes until he finally looked back down at our son.
 
 “Go on.”
 
 “I, Ulric Pierre-Oidche-Black, am quitting baseball ... not because it is hard. But because … because…” He sighed. “Because everyone sucks, Dad.”
 
 “Ulric!” I stomped into the room.
 
 “It’s true! I’m the MVP, but why do I have to do everything?”
 
 Levi released a breath of relief, dropping to eye level with our seven-year-old MVP of the Boston Beagles Little League.
 
 “Kiddo, I know you are upset about losing the championships, but remember, it’s a team sport. You can’t let your teammates down.”
 
 He groaned. “But they let me down.”
 
 “So you want to quit? That’s not what sports are about, son.”
 
 “No … ugh.” He scratched his curls and lifted the paper again to read. “I’m not quitting because it is hard, but because I want to play tennis. And I promise not to quit again.”
 
 “Tennis?” Levi looked at him like he was an alien.
 
 But Ulric grinned, happily nodding his head. “If I play tennis, I still get to be on a team, but each game is just me and somebody else. It’s like what you and Mommy say Willow and I have to do.”
 
 “Share?” Levi asked, still frowning.
 
 Ulric shook his head. “No, co-promise.”