Playing the 'Son' Card by Wilson James

how much I’d taken on back home,
looking after myself and getting the house ready for
sale.
    “You’re really doing a lot, Troy,
for a lot of people, it seems,” he commented. “You sure have grown
up a lot in the last little while.”
    “I suppose,” I mumbled, still unsure
of my standing with him.
    He stopped what he was doing, and
looked at me. He put his hands gently on my upper arms. “You know,
Troy. Your dad would be really, really proud of you. And, you
should be proud of yourself.”
    Jack was just getting warmed up.
“You’ve done amazing things, and speaking for myself, what I see
you doing for my sons is nothing short of astounding. I mean, you
were nice to them before, but all of a sudden it seems as if you’ve
become this amazing mentor to them, and they would follow you
anywhere.”
    I was pleased to hear all this, but
I still had a feeling there was a little unsaid, and I suspected I
knew what it was.
    “So you’re worried that they might
take after me if I do something illegal.” There. I’d said it. I’d
known that was a concern, and that was why I had not even
considered taking them with me, and why I had told them about how
scary it was and how I would not want to do it again.
    Jack was looking into my face to see
how sincere I was.
    “Yes, Mr. Evanson, you understand
perfectly. That, too, is a measure of your maturity, and another
reason your dad would be proud.”
    I didn’t really like him to keep
referring to my dad, but he was the adult, and I could do nothing
with his kids without his approval.
    His expression changed for the
better. “So, Evan, that’s the end of that conversation and our
discussion of that event. Thanks for being
understanding.”
    “Okay,” I acknowledged.
    I took a breath. “So, I was talking
to Aunt Sally a few minutes ago.”
    I told him that I wanted to take the
kids to the pool and she thought it was okay. I also asked him
about his bike, not mentioning that Sally had given it to
me.
    He told me that he was happy that it
was finally being used again, and apologized for not having it in
better order for me.
    “I should have thought of that
before you came,” he said. “Thanks for looking after that
yourself.”
    With that confrontation out of the
way, I left him to his own work, and headed back inside. My mother
had gone to the office, so I hung around with the boys until it was
lunch time.
    I’d asked Sally if we could have an
early lunch, so we could get a head start over to the
pool.
    After eating and getting ready, we
took off with a little time to spare. I wanted to go an extra five
minutes past the pool to the real estate building, and show the
boys my office, if it was not busy.
    So, after we started out, I asked
them, “You guys want to take a little detour, and see my office
where my mom works?”
    Jesse was enthused.
“Sure!”
    “Yeah, okay.” Trevor
agreed.
    “I’ll just warn you in advance that
if it’s busy, we won’t go in.” I said as we kept riding.
    A few minutes later, we got to the
building, and we parked our bikes around the back, out of the way.
There was only one other car there besides my mom’s, so I thought
we’d be safe to go in.
    At the front door, I had to use the
key that Melanie had given me. I pushed my marker to the ‘in’
position, just in case someone wanted to know who’d come in. Then I
led the boys down the corridor to my office.
    As I hoped, they were a little in
awe at my space, and the name on my desk. I left them for a moment
while I went and got us each a soda. Then I sat down at my desk and
showed them how I had my own email account, and then even showed
them my stack of business cards.
    I suppose in taking them in there
and showing off, I was showing a little bit less mature behavior,
but I’d never had any kids who really liked me before, much less
looked up to me, and it was nice to bask in their
approbation.
    We finished our sodas, and I gave
them each a card to take. I put a few more in