Page 127 of Chosen Road

I knew all too well how a mother could do such a thing, but thank God, Jace did not.

“There’s something wrong with her to make her do something like that. I don’t know her. I can’t tell you if it’s something that could be fixed, or something that’s just her, but the important thing to remember, and what George will need to keep in mind, is that the problem is her. Not him.”

He looked at me then. “I would die if my mom did that to me.”

I swept the hair off his face. “That’s something you never have to worry about.”

He nodded and his body seemed to deflate into the mattress.

“You’re tired, glykouli mou.” I scratched his scalp lightly. “Thia is here for you to talk anytime, right? You know I work with kids who are hurting every day, right?”

He nodded, his eyes on my face. “You’ll be there for George, too?”

I lay my palm against his cheek. “Of course. He’s family. He’s mine same as you are.”

He closed his eyes and nodded. I sat with him until Alex bounded into the room, then I kissed my son goodnight, and slipped out of the room. I waited on the other side of the door, and within seconds, Jace’s chuckle filtered through, and I headed to bed.

Gus dropped Jace home Sunday afternoon once Ruby, Vander, George, and Vander’s parents got in from the airport. George coming a few days early came as a bit of a surprise, but it was better that he be here with his Dad. Gus didn’t go inside. They needed some time to reconnect and love on George.

Monday offered no such restraint. We showed up en masse to visit, with Yiayia waving her ‘good like new’ arm, sans cast, around for all to admire.

Ruby swung the front door open, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright.

She threw her arms wide. “Alex! Give Thia a hug, glykouli!”

Alex wrapped his skinny arms around her, and she rocked back and forth holding him close for a second before releasing him. “Boys are inside, the other Yiayia and Pappou are in there, too. They’re dying to meet you.”

Gus held Yiayia’s elbow as she stepped into her own house for only the second time in the past six weeks.

Tears brightened her eyes. I bent to her. “Are you okay, Yiayia?”

“Yes,” she said softly. “Here is where I loved all of you for all of my life. These walls were built with Pappou’s love and my sweat.” She turned to me and lay her palm against my face. “You know… never was you a burden, koukla. We was sad for you, but always happy you was with us.”

Her words startled me, mostly because they pinpointed a wound I didn’t know I carried. “Thank you, Yiayia,” I whispered.

“Koukla mou,” she whispered. “You was always worth it. You must believe that, or George is no going to believe it. You can’t give what you don’t have.”

You can’t give what you don’t have.

You’re just like me.

I kissed her cheek and smiled into her eyes. “Thank you, Yiayia mou. Thank you for loving me. For wanting me.”

“Bah.” She waved me away, her eyes bright. “Is easy, koukla mou.”

Ruby stood waiting for her turn with Yiayia, and I left them holding tightly to one another.

Vander’s parents were completely enamoured with Jace and wouldn’t release George. When Alex walked in, they convened on him as well.

“Agori mou!” Vander’s mom pulled him into a hug. “Is so good to meet you! I be your Yiayia, too. You have two Yiayias now! Isn’t that good!”

Alex looked at me with wide eyes as Vander’s dad pressed twenty dollars into his hands. “Hartziliki! Spending money. You buy something good for yourself from Pappou.”

Alex turned to me, a huge, slightly dazed smile on his face. He waved the twenty-dollar bill. “Har-ji-leaky!”

They laughed, he thanked them, and backed away from their grasping hands while calling to his cousins. Together, they escaped upstairs away from the din.

George stood up and smiled reassuringly at his grandparents. By the time he faced the stairs, his smile was gone, his face blank. That beautiful boy who burned so brightly only six weeks ago, now moved in a state of disbelief and desolation.

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