A Losing Game

"Icy Colors Change"

            Roderick opened his eyes on Christmas morning to his phone beeping from a recent text message. He picked his phone up from the nightstand to see it was a text from Jacory telling him Merry Christmas. He texted Merry Christmas back to Jacory before climbing out of bed and going downstairs to find Deven cooking breakfast in the kitchen. Instead of sitting down at the table, he headed over to their small Christmas tree in the living room.

            "Straight to the presents," said Deven with a laugh. "Them gifts been under that lil' ass tree for like two weeks now. You can't wait a few more minutes to open them?"

            "I got you gifts, too," Roderick said back with a laugh.

            "Yeah, you did. Hold on." He finished cooking bacon and turned the stove off before heading over to the living room. He watched as Roderick opened one of the two gifts he'd bought for him.

            When Roderick tore the gift wrap from the box and saw it was a new MacBook Pro, he looked at Deven and asked, "Dev, is this for real?"

            Deven laughed and said, "I got you an iPhone when you first came to stay with me so I figured I might as well stick with Apple when it came to getting you a new laptop. Your old laptop is clearly on its last legs."

            "I wasn't expecting this, man. Wow. Thanks, bro."

            "Open the other gift I got you."

            Roderick put the MacBook Pro box on the nearby loveseat and then picked up his other gift, which was noticeably smaller. He tore the gift wrapper away and opened the small square shaped box to see there was a gold pocket watch inside. When Roderick took the pocket watch out of the box and opened it, he saw there was a small circular childhood portrait of him and Deven affixed to the inside case of the watch. Roderick was a toddler and Deven was holding him as they smiled for the camera. The watch also played a short musical tune when opened.

            "Dev, this is too much," said Roderick as tears began to form in his eyes. "Where did you even get this pic from? How old were we?"

            "I was nine and you were two," Deven explained while fighting back tears. "I've uh...I've had that pic for years. It was the only one I could grab the day momma overdosed and child protective services took us. Momma kept it on top of the TV stand. I kept it hidden for so long because it always made me cry and made me think about you and everything that happened. But when we started therapy together, I finally built up the strength to look at it again and that's when I got the idea to have it restored and professionally preserved in a way that we both could keep forever." He pulled the matching pocket watch from his own pocket and showed it to Roderick.

            "You got one, too?"

            "Yeah, it plays the same little tune and it's got the same pic inside. Rod, no matter where you go or where I am, we'll always have these two unique watches and that means we'll never be separated again in this life. I promise you I'm gonna be here for you as long as I can, man."

            Roderick hugged him and told him, "Thank you, Deven. I'll keep it forever."

            They both managed to keep their tears from falling as they pulled back from the embrace. After taking a moment to collect themselves, Deven picked up one of the gifts Roderick had gotten him. He reached into the gift bag and pulled out the brown teddy bear that was inside.

            "Huggy?" Deven asked. "Rod, is this Huggy?"

            "Yeah, that's him. I've had him for all these years. When you brought my stuff here from that old bando I was livin' in, I was surprised that he was still in one of my duffle bags. I ran him through two wash cycles and he came out lookin' good as new. He's more of a gift for you and Jazmine's baby."