Father's Day by Simon van Booy Page A

close.”
    Wanda then mentioned how Jason had made extra money before Harvey moved in, so he could purchase a dresser, a desk, and a mini drum set for her.
    â€œDo you play the drums, Jason?” the man asked. “You musical?”
    â€œI used to,” Jason said. “Harvey asked me to teach her.”
    The man was impressed. “That’s exactly the kind of thing we want to hear—music to our ears, so to speak.”
    A T THE BEGINNING of the trial period three months earlier, Wanda had brought Harvey’s stuff in two suitcases, along with a few bags of groceries so she could cook a celebration meal.
    Jason had converted the spare room, which pleased Wanda. The carpet was gone, replaced by new dark wood flooring thatJason had bought at Home Depot and cut to size on Wanda’s husband’s table saw. The dresser he picked out had butterfly handles and a glass top. Wanda had found a bed frame at a yard sale near her home in Hempstead, which her husband had cleaned up and painted.
    Harvey’s stuff was mostly clothes and toys. Wanda laid everything out on the bed, showing Jason how to fold and keep socks and underwear in one place, shirts and leggings in another. Wanda said that Harvey was still wearing diapers at night, and she would get him a six-month supply of the nighttime Pull-Ups, courtesy of Uncle Bill.
    â€œWho’s that?” Jason said.
    â€œWe just say that when we expense things.”
    Wanda said she liked how the spare room was shaping up. She saw the mini drum set and told Jason how important it would be to do things with Harvey for the first time.
    â€œShe’s never ridden a bicycle without training wheels,” Wanda said. “So that’s something else to look forward to. Make sure you take a camera.”
    Wanda said the next three months were very important if he was to be appointed official guardian. “Reach out to your friends,” she advised him. “Have them write letters about the good things you’ve done and what a nice, pleasant person you are.”
    B UT THREE MONTHS later, a week before the court interview, Jason confessed that the only person he knew well enough to ask for a character reference was standing in front of him.
    â€œWhat about the neighbors?”
    â€œThey don’t speak English.”
    â€œDamn it, Jason—you could have said something earlier.”
    â€œWhat should we do?”
    â€œThe interview with the courts is next week . . . I’ll have to get my friends to do it.”
    â€œIs that allowed?”
    â€œIf I did what the law allowed,” Wanda explained, “we wouldn’t even be standing here having this conversation.”
    F OR THE FIRST few weeks living in Jason’s house, Harvey cried a lot for her parents, and kept having accidents.
    One night Jason woke up and saw her shivering in his bedroom doorway. She had wet the bed a second time within a few hours and was afraid to wake him again.
    Jason carried her into the bathroom and ran the hot tap. Then he washed her legs with a warm towel. “If it feels itchy, wake me up and I’ll wipe you off again.”
    He could see she’d been crying because her eyes were red. “It’s not a big deal,” he told her. “Even tough guys with tats who ride motorcycles wet the bed, Harvey.”
    â€œLike you?” Harvey said.
    Jason nodded.
    Then he took a Pull-Up from the bag and helped her step in through the holes. Finding clean pajamas was more difficult, but there was a pair with spaceships in the laundry room, and Jason warmed them up in the dryer.
    Then Harvey sat cross-legged on the floor and watched Jason strip the bed and put on fresh linens. When he was done, Harvey got in and went back to sleep.
    A couple of nights later it happened again. The mattresswas wet on both sides, so Jason had to put a garbage bag over the stain, then a blanket over the bag. When he was finished, Harvey wanted him to stay