The Truth About That Summer

sixty-one

"Whatcha drawing, Finn?" I peer across the table as Finn reaches for another crayon. Beside him, Jade is hoarding all the red and pink shades.

As usual, they're the last two children to be picked up for the day.

Tapping a blue crayon against his chin, Finn smiles at me and answers as if it's obvious. "A fishin' trip."

"A fishing trip?" I show as much enthusiasm as I can, more than exhausted and ready for this day to be over. I point to one of the alien-stick-figure drawings in the middle of the page. "Is that Uncle Luke?"

With a little huff of air, Finn shakes his head dejectedly. "No, that's Daddy."

I feel a frown come over my expression, still having yet to meet Finn's dad, before he speaks again.

"But I'm going to draw a new one." He shoves the first sheet aside, the coloring seemingly still unfinished, and grabs a new sheet of paper. He swipes the crayon in a million directions, topping off a long pole-like body with a round, oversized head. "That's Uncle Luke now."

I smirk at the likeness. "Very handsome."

Finn giggles, his green eyes twinkling as he does. His little dimple pops in the same place that Luke's does and the ache in my chest that I've been keeping at bay all day returns.

"What about you Jade?" I turn my attention to her, tilting my head to look at her drawing, even less describable than Finn's. "Is that..."

I rack my brain for options, coming up empty. To my relief, she fills in the blank for me.

"Butterflies," She says shyly.

"Those are pretty butterflies, Jade." Finn nods approvingly, looking between their two works of art. Then, perhaps inspired by his classmate, he's hard at work, scribbling a handful of colors onto the paper. Jade watches for a moment before going back to her own illustration.

I sit like that, watching them color intently - so focused you'd think they're mini Picasso's, until a knock at the door grabs my attention about a half hour later.

"Okay, Jade. Time to go home!" I tell her, raising a finger to her mother through the doorway to let her know we'll be there shortly. Leaving Finn with his crayons, I help Jade into her denim jacket and book bag, carefully enclosing the drawing inside. "You get to show Mommy all your pretty butterflies. I bet she'll love them."

Jade smiles, immediately shy now that her parent is around. After walking her to the door and exchanging pleasantries with her mother, I'm left alone with Finn.

Now that it's just the two of us, I let him pick what songs to play and rejoin him at the coloring table. After several minutes, he slams the last crayon down triumphantly and thrusts the drawing into my hands.

"All done!" He smiles.

"Want to put it in your backpack to go home, so you can show Mom?" I ask, making sure to spend enough time appraising his latest work. It seems there's a couple more stick figures thrown in.

"No, it's for you." Finn mutters, hopping off his stool and waddling over to my side, using a chubby finger to point at each bobblehead representation. "See, that's Uncle Luke, and that's me." He points to a stick-figure with long, brown lines in an array around its circle-head. "And that's you. It's when we went fishin'."

"Aw, Finn. I love it! But are you sure you don't want to hang onto it for the memory?" I clutch it to my chest, showing him how much it means to me.

"No," Finn sighs again, before sitting down beside some blocks still left on the floor from earlier. "Mommy won't like it."

"Oh," I feel my mouth pop open in surprise as I sit beside him. Maybe I shouldn't ask, but I can't help myself. "Why won't Mommy like it?"