The Baker And The Queen Pin

10.) A Father and Son

~~~~Booker Sr

I look at Booker, it's been three days since the incident and his mother forced him to stay with me. She said to him, 'Maybe you're more like your father than you thought. Stupid, ignorant and wiling to do anything,' Her words supposedly, I sit there, looking at his bags. He didn't have much, just a couple of days is what his mother said.

It's then that he asks: 'So, where am I going?' "Well, you've been suspended from school for the next 45 days. I'm gonna have to fucking reinstate you in a school that'll take you," He then says, 'I'll be separate from my sister,' "You and your sister didn't even have the same majors," I say to him. 'No, we didn't but,' "No buts, you dug yourself in this hole and now you have to get out of it," 'So, Father of the Year is speaking to me?' I take a deep sigh as I tell him, "Father of the Year? You want to know the difference between me and your, Junior? I'm not your fucking mother. You keep talking to me as if you have no respect for me and I'm going to fight you like a man and I don't think you can handle that, boy," I say to him.

I want him to understand that I'm not going to tolerate his behavior. He looks at me shocked as he says, 'You don't have it in you. You only hit women,' and I punched him in the stomach. I let the wind slide out of him as he hits the ground. I then said to him, "I fought men bigger than you and I used to be in a gang. I didn't get caught with something as little as a knife. I got sent to jail at 16 for being in possession of a deadly weapon but that was before guns were deemed illegal. My record is clean now, son. Ask your mother about me before you start making false assumptions and tell her to tell you the truth about me, boy,"

That was the first time in a long time that I've raised my hand to my son, he was getting big. I was 6'1" and my son was 5'11" He was definitely going to be 6 foot by his senior year if not my height. He gets up as he limps to his room and I grab him by the shoulder as I say, "Sit down," He sits down in my couch in my apartment and I find myself, getting up to go into the kitchen.

I haven't drank a beer in almost two weeks because of how busy I've been but I knock one back as I say to him, "Like it or not, you're my son. I'll always love you but I won't tolerate your disrespect anymore. You don't know the whole story but you find yourself assuming everything about me. I never want to raise my hand at you again and next time you decide to do it, I'll drop you off at your mother's and cut contact. The next time you force me to do it, I'll drop you off at your mother's and let her deal with this. The only reason she has me dealing with it because she knows I'll pay for it. She knows I'll make sure you guys have everything. That's my responsibility and career as a father,"

He then says, 'Career?' "Yes," I say to him as a smile, "As much as I like baking, I like taking care of my children more. It's what inspired me to do more with myself. I pride myself on being a father. I pride myself on loving my children and doing what I can to take care of you. You're my son and when I saw you both born within five minutes of each other, I knew I fell in love. I knew I would love my two children no matter what. Now, you don't have to like it but I'm here for you. I expect so much more from you, son. Your room is down the hall to the right, you've had a tough couple of days and I want you to find something better to do other than trying to shit on me every chance you get. You're a nice kid, Booker and you'll be a good man. Don't let your mother's influence cloud you from being the best person you could be. I've made mistakes but I want you to know I never regretted having children with your mother,"

It's then that I get a text, I recognize the name and I smile immediately as I start to reply, "Hey, how are you?" I get a text immediately after, 'I'm great. I'm sorry that life got in the way :(' I text as I say, "We're both adults. Things happen all the time" I look up and I see Booker, "You're still here?" He says, 'I thought you were still talking to me?' "No son, I just want you to do better," I look down at my phone as she then asks a question I didn't expect, 'Are you busy?'

I smile, I ponder what I should say to her. It's then that Junior sneaks up behind me, 'Who are you texting?' It's then that I put my two fingers on my nose, trying to compose myself, "I'm not texting anyone important, Booker," He looked at me with a smile and said, 'Don't tell me, it's someone new,' he says with a smile. He was trying to be annoying and he reminded me so much of myself when I was younger, how he could let go of his anger in a matter of a few seconds. "If you must know, I met someone new," He smiles as he says, 'About goddamn time, Mom says you used to stalk her,'

I look at him and I say, "That's bullshit," completely annoyed. "The hell do I want to stalk your mother for? I don't even like her. She's just the mother of my kids," He looks at me, almost insulted, 'I thought you and Mom were close?' he says and I realize how much information he doesn't know. I respond by telling him, "Why would I ever stalk your mother? I never wanted to stalk your mother, she just never wanted to communicate with me about you two," He looked critically for a moment but he stopped himself, 'That's bullshit. You hardly ever wanted to be around us,' I take a deep breath and say, "There's plenty of other days to do this, just not today," 'If not today, then when?'

"When you're ready to have a conversation, we can talk later on but you can't be angry and you actually have to listen to what I have to say. You have to listen with an unbiased mind. If you can't do that, then it'll be a waste of time," It's then that I get another text message, almost on cue, 'So, do you want to hang out sometime soon??' I see two questions marks I think about it for a second and I realize how long it's been.

It's been at least 3 days since I saw her and I know it's not serious but I do enjoy talking to her. "Yes actually, I wouldn't mind it," I respond, almost a little too ecstatic. I smile a cheeky smile as I ask Booker, "Can you actually handle being in the house by yourself for a few hours?" I say to him, questioning his abilities. He looks at me and says, 'Why wouldn't I be able to handle being in the house by myself? She leaves me in the house all the time by myself,' I look at him, questioningly, "Didn't you have extra-curricular activities?" 'I was playing basketball for a while but you know how that goes. Plus with this knife fiasco, I don't think I'll be playing until next year,'

"Well, you can't be in the house all day so if you want, you can work at the bakery to get your community service hours," He frowns as he says, 'The bakery's boring,' "Well maybe if you didn't bring a fucking knife to school, this wouldn't be a problem. That's your option: You can go to the bakery and get your community service hours. Good thing you have plenty of opportunities," 'So you really want me working at your store?' he says to me, curiously.

I look at him and say, "I expect nothing else less especially if you want to get your community service hours and if you want to go back to school as soon as possible," He nods as I get up and change my clothes. "Now, I'm about to go. If you have company over, at least make sure you clean up. I just want you to clean up after yourself if you have company," He raises an eyebrow as he says, 'You're really okay with that?' I tell him, "You're a teenager, I expect nothing less."

'Take care of yourself and have fun,' I hear him say, out-of-character. I get up and leave out of the house as I make my way to the car parked outside. I see her, driving her own car this time. That was something new to me. I see a bright smile and I see that she has a bandage wrapped around her right hand and I say, "Thank you for picking me up," She smiles as she says, 'I'd do almost anything for you, handsome,' I laugh as I say, 'Almost anything? I'm an old man,' She says, 'I was just kidding. You know us Russian girls like to make jokes,'

I smiled as I said, "Okay,"

End of Chapter 10: A Father and Son