Anthology Going to the Chapel

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from her arms to the carpeted floor.
"Ash!" Philip called, exasperated, but Mrs. Dixon patted his
arm and said, "It's all right, dear. Let her go. No point in
trying to rein her in now. Birthday fever's taken hold."
For the next hour, the place was a total zoo. It was easy to
spot the kids who were there for Ashley's party, since most of
them were kind of dressed up. Didn't make any sense to Levi,
who would have thought putting them in old clothes would
have made more sense what with all the pizza and ice cream,
but then, he wasn't a parent, was he?
The thought depressed him, somehow. He'd always
imagined he'd have kids someday, whether he was in a long-
term relationship or not. Single guys could adopt, after all,
even if it might not be the easiest thing in the world. He'd
done hard things before.
Still, now, watching Ashley and her friends play skee-ball
and video games, he sort of felt like life was passing him by.
These kids were so happy.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden hand on his
hip. Levi looked up at Philip, who was watching him. "You
look sad," Philip said.
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"No," Levi said, but it was such an obvious lie that he
sighed. "Okay, maybe a little."
"Why?"
Levi shrugged. "I guess sometimes it seems like everyone
has a family but me. I know, it's stupid "
"It's not stupid," Philip protested. "And it's not really true.
The Dixons consider you an honorary son, I think. It's how
they've always talked about you."
"Yeah?" Feeling a little bit cheered up, Levi leaned in closer
to ask, "That doesn't make this some weird form of incest,
does it?"
Philip laughed, surprised. "If it did, I think they'd have
been a bit more upset at the idea."
Levi felt his eyes widen. He wished they were in a quieter,
less crazy place to have this conversation. "They know?"
"They know," Philip said. "And they're fine with it. I knew
you'd probably be fretting about how they might react when
they found out, so it seemed best to just get it out of the way
now. They've been urging me to start dating for months
now they're very good people, you know and I made it
clear that when I did, it would be men. So they've had time to
get used to the idea."
"Levi!" Ashley was suddenly there, tugging on his hand.
"Come stomp spiders for me!"
"Um what?"
"Spiders! Over here. I put the token in, and you stomp,
okay?" Ashley led him over to a game where spiders on a
platform lit up and he had to touch them with his feet before
the lights went out. It was harder than it looked, he
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Going to the CHapel
by J. J. Massa, Alexa Snow, Jenna Jones
discovered, and by the time he'd finished, he was sweating
and probably red in the face. Ashley seemed thrilled with the
long ribbon of tickets, though.
They'd finished the pizza and were gathered around the
table, ready to light the candles on the huge pink birthday
cake, when Philip, who'd been keeping up a running
monologue while getting things ready, suddenly stopped
talking. Levi had been watching Ashley but listening to Philip;
when Philip went silent, Levi looked at him.
Philip had gone totally still, unmoving. The lighter, which
he'd just flicked on, kept burning, but he didn't seem to
notice. He was staring toward the entrance to the building,
where a woman with short, blonde hair was arguing with one
of the store employees. She looked up then, while Levi was
watching her. And he recognized her.
Meg.
"Mommy!" Ashley cried, and struggled out of her chair to
run to her.
No one else seemed to know what to do; everyone just
stood there, pretty much frozen in shock, Levi included. Philip
swore and dropped the lighter, bringing his thumb to his
mouth and sucking on it, then walked across to where the
employee was still arguing with Meg about coming in. Philip
said something to the young man and he relented, stepped
back, and let Meg in. Ashley immediately threw her arms
around Meg and held on.
Meg and Philip looked at each other over their daughter's
head. "I wanted to come for her birthday," Meg said, and Levi
realized that he'd walked toward them.
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Going to the CHapel
by J. J. Massa, Alexa Snow, Jenna Jones
Shrugging slightly, Philip stood there but didn't say
anything.
"That was you," someone said, and Levi turned his head to
see that it was Mrs. Dixon. "Who phoned this morning to ask
about the party."
Meg nodded. "Sorry for the whole ruse thing. I wanted it to
be a surprise."
"Well, it's definitely a surprise," Mr. Dixon said.
They all stood there. Again, no one seemed to know what
to say. Then Ashley stopped hugging her mother long enough
to suggest, "I want to have my cake!"
"Okay, sweetheart," Meg said. "It's your birthday, so you
can have anything you want. If you want to have cake, let's
have cake!"
"Yay!" Ashley ran back to the table as if nothing unusual
were happening, as if her mother hadn't just returned after
having been missing for a third of her life, and everyone else
followed. Philip lit the candles his face, Levi noted, was pale,
but his expression was blank, like he wasn't even there and
they all sang "Happy Birthday." Levi didn't really feel like he
was there, either.
Even with Philip so quiet, and not really looking glad to see
Meg even with everything Philip had told him it was hard [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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