CAM

THE RESPONSE FROM Karter letting me know he'd be ready to talk to me as soon as I was able made me smile, but I put my phone away so I could be present with my kid on our little weekend excursion. I'd call him later, once Ty was in bed.

Up close to the pond in the middle of the park, it seemed every duck within a 10-mile radius had waddled up to partake in the feast we were so graciously providing them. The males, with bright green heads and curly tails had low, raspy quacks, and the females, who were brown with darker bills, let out the high-pitched, ear-splitting quacks. Ty definitely preferred those, and didn't mind joining in the chorus. I hoped he wouldn't accidentally say something offensive in duck language. Death by horde of ducks would be a pretty embarrassing epitaph on the tombstone.

They had no fear as they came right up to our feet, greedily vacuuming up whatever Ty threw out for them. Today's menu was a mix of cracked corn and shredded lettuce.

An older beta couple walking down the little designated path behind us, hand in hand, stopped to chat.

"Giving the duckies some bread there, are you?" The woman called out, a pleasant expression on her face. I grimaced at her words, knowing exactly how my son would react.

He whipped around, a disapproving frown carved across his round little face. "No, I am not giving the duckies bread !" He put a hand on his hip, like he was ready to send her to bed without supper. "Bread is no good for ducks! If they fill up on bread, they won't get the stuff they need!"

Looking a bit taken aback but not offended, the woman and her husband laughed. "Is that so?"

"You better just stick to feeding them corn and peas and lettuce and grapes!" His sentence didn't explicitly include a warning to them, but one was implied. Or else…

"I'm sorry," I murmured, once he'd turned back around and was distracted. "He's very… passionate."

The man waved off my apology, giving me an easygoing grin. "Oh, he's just fine. What a smart little guy!"

"And such a handsome thing!" The woman added. "The two of you look just alike!"

"Ah, thank you very much. That's kind of you to say." If it was their roundabout way of saying that I was handsome too, I wasn't so sure I agreed. But still, the compliment was appreciated.

I told them to have a good evening, and they went on their way. Sighing a little, I came back up to Ty, putting my hand on his shoulder.

"You know, baby, you can be a little more gentle when people make a mistake about feeding the ducks bread."

"No, Dad," he argued, giving me the driest look a six-year-old could possibly harness. "How are they going to learn ?"

"Alright." Even my angelic little sugar cube of a son had his breaking point. I guess I couldn't expect him to have the maturity developed yet to grant grace to those he considered to be maliciously ignorant.

I leaned down to give him a kiss on the crown of his hair, a habit I hadn't been able to break since he'd been a wrinkly little infant with a barely fuzzy head.

We gave out the rest of the corn and lettuce to the very satisfied horde before heading home, Ty letting his adoring, feathered audience know that we would be back soon. The sunset's fiery blaze was already softening out to a dusty pink, stars peeking out to dot the darkening sky.

I gripped his hand tight as we made our way down the mostly empty sidewalks. "So have you made any new friends in school lately?"

"New?" He repeated, looking thoughtful. "Not really. We haven't had a new kid in class since around, um, maybe Valentine's Day! That's when Kelly came. She's from Kentucky. She talks weird."

"She talks different," I corrected him. "People aren't weird just because they're different."

"Well, different, then. But I like her anyway!"

"That's good." Brutal honesty was one of the scariest aspects of having a little kid. "I made a new friend, too."

"You did?" Ty asked, his eyes widening like dinner plates. "Not Hana?"

"Not Hana."

"Who is it?"

"His name is Karter."

"Do you guys play with each other?"

Blinking, I cleared my throat. "We talk a lot."

"Boring."

"That's what grown-ups do," I reminded him. "Talk." And as far as he would know for what I hoped was a long, long time that was all grown-ups liked to do together.

"Well, if that's what you like, then it's okay."

"Thank you."

At home I made the dinner that Ty asked for, hot dogs and mac and cheese. After we'd eaten, he took a bath, watched some TV, and then I tucked him into bed. I patiently answered all the sudden questions he would spontaneously think of directly before bedtime, and then read him a story off his bookshelf. By the time I was finished, he was practically snoring. I slid his door closed, turning the knob to avoid a click that might disturb him.

Taking a deep breath, I did a quick survey of the house to make sure there was nothing that would disturb or distract me. The food was put away, and I'd washed the dishes when Ty was in the bath. There was no laundry in the washer to dry, and no clothes in the dryer for me to fold.

Turning off the overhead lights in the living room and flipping on the lamp on the table next to my couch, I snuggled under the blankets as I made the call to Karter.

"Hey, baby boy."