Chief's Kid, Part VI by Vegard

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Part VI

I'd soon done what I needed to do down at the station. It wasn't much at all really. More of an excuse to get away while Toby was "getting his hair done".
Leaning back in my chair I thought of the days events. First driving Toby to Pete&Josh's, then looking at cars with Mike. Going from a feeling of "I got this!" to, "What the f*** is going on?" as Tobias had come downstairs with his head looking like a poodle.
I thought about how Mike and I had kind of connected, and how Toby felt like someone from a totally different planet.

If only there was someone I could talk to about them.
Slapping my forehead I sat bolt upright. What a complete dumbass I'd been! I had someone; Their Mom!
I grabbed the headset for calling from my computer and looked her number up on my cell. She picked up almost immediately.
"Cathy? It's Jim."
"Oh my God, is something wrong?" She almost yelled, in that shrill tone that I had not minded so much at first, but that had gotten more and more on my nerves as our relationship soured.
"Relax!" I said, "The kids are fine". I heard her breathe a sigh of relief.
"I just need a bit of help on this parenting stuff," I said, and told her about the events since yesterday.
She sounded somewhat amused as she said, "Not used to this are you Big-Jim?"
"Ha-ha!" I said, but I got her point. "Big-Jim" had been a nickname of mine before I became "Chief", and Big-Jim could normally handle pretty much anything. Anything apart from family issues. Big-Jim wasn't too good at handling the everyday wife&kids stuff.

I sighed, "I just need some help that's all."
I could almost hear her smile as it was her turn to say "Relax!"
"Listen Jim, the kids are growing up, and they are who they are. Ok?"
I just listened, giving her an "Uhu," every now and then to let her know I was paying attention as she explained.

She explained how Mike and Jane were confident and had found their roles in their own universes, and I could see that. Mike having told me about his work and all, it fit in with what Cathy told me now. And Jane was solid as well, always having been outgoing and having had an easy time getting accepted by her peers.

This was not the case with Tobias though, and it turned out Cathy was worried about his lack of confidence, and his lack of friends. The way she talked about him, it sounded like she (also) thought him weak and needing her help and attention a lot more than his siblings.
"He really got a short back and sides? And curls?" she asked, after telling me all about her worries about how he didn't fit in and him being away from her.
"Yeah," I answered, finally being allowed a word in, and quickly added, "And I had no part in it!"
"Why did he do that?" she asked, sounding worried.
"Dunno," I said, but I started thinking maybe he wanted to be a bit bolder now that he was away from his mom.

I thanked her for helping me with this talk about our kids, and asked some polite questions about her treatment, and her stay with her sister, and we hung up.
I was relieved. it had been a good talk, but one that was a lot longer than I was normally comfortable with. Not for the first time I thought how odd it was for her parents to call their daughters Cathryn and Kate, Cathy and Katie.

With my feet on my desk, my thoughts drifted back to Tobes. He was a tough one to place, that was for sure. But I figured, there wasn't much I could do to shape him one way or the other. At least not without knowing him. And I settled on letting him show me who he was before I could help him assert himself. If that was what he needed.
It was a bit strange, but it felt right somehow, just to leave whatever conflict there was for now, and see how it went. Texting him, I asked if he was done at P&J's, and I actually looked forward to picking him up.

Pete and Josh were waiting outside with Toby as I pulled up, and I smiled and nodded a thanks to them both as Toby got in the car.
He looked better. His hair wasn't quite as bulky, and his back and sides faded gradually to bare skin, sort of like mine.

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What a day.

Dad taking Toby to the barber, and him returning with bald fades on his back and sides, voluntarily. And me getting my own car!
I tested out my "new" Chevy, and I loved it.
I stopped at a gas-station and hooked my cell to the radio via Bluetooth, and as I took off again, I called Sadie.
"Hey baby! It's me!" I said, and a rush of adrenaline went through me as I revved up the car.
"Oh," she sounded a bit surprised, "Hi Mike".
"Guess what I got!" I asked her.
"I dunno Mike, but can it wait? I'm hanging out with Jolanta."
Was that a slight pause before "Jolanta"? Puzzled, and disappointed I said, "Yeah, ok."
She said a quick goodbye and hung up.

What the h*ll?
This was not right. My near total happiness over having my own car had all but evaporated, and I drove on, brooding on what this, the shortest ever, call with my girlfriend(?) could mean.
A loud honk startled me as I realized I had slowed considerably as my foot had gone almost limp on the pedal.
Looking in the rear-view mirror I saw a frustrated lady in what appeared to be her 50-ies, and with a jolt of anger I slammed my foot down on the accelerator.
I sped off, not thinking about speed limits. Uncertainty and anger coursing through me.

It wasn’t until I was well out of town that I calmed down enough to ease up on the speed and pay attention to the speedometer. S**t, I didn’t need for Dad’s guys to have to pull me over. That would not be good. Forcing myself to keep the limit I drove home, and tried to pretend I was okay as Jane and Toby came out to check on my wheels.
Toby offered me a wide grin as he came out. And seeing him with his new hair-do I actually forgot my own woes for a few seconds. He looked great, and I told him so. If possible, his grin got even wider.

Eating with the others I was kind of distant I guess. At one point during supper a text pinged on my cell, and I jumped up to get it.
It was from Mom. Disappointed I sat back down, quickly finished my meal, and excused myself.

Dad had a thoughtful, disapproving look, but all he said was, "Thank you brother for the meal!"
Feeling thoroughly miserable at this stage that Sadie hadn’t gotten in touch with me, I managed a smile of sorts to Tobes and complimented him both for the meal and the haircut.

Should I call her? I sat in my room looking at my cell. Finally, I called, and after a few rings she picked up. She was friendly and said she missed me.
I said I missed her to and told her about my car.
After we hung up, I sat in deep thought. My first "long distance relationship". Were we ok? Would we be ok?
With nagging doubts about where this was headed, I didn't fall asleep until well after midnight.

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Monday came after a quiet Sunday at the house. We got a ride with Mike to school, and Jane and I went in together. Mike was quiet today as well and said for us to go ahead without him.

I thought of Pete pushing his chin up, as a signal for me to hold my head high. Making an effort to lower my shoulders as well, I straightened up and took a few deep breaths to calm myself. And it worked. I told myself, for the tenth time since Saturday, "New slates Tobes! New slates."
Jane asked a boy our age where our classroom was, and he offered to guide us there. This did not surprise me, as Jane seems to get help very easily from guys of all ages really.
I found it a bit unsettling the way he kept glancing over at me though.
She smiled brightly at him as he'd taken us to our homeroom, and I smiled at him as well and thanked him. Despite finding it a bit uncomfortable the way he'd kept sneaking peaks at me as we walked down the corridors.
"You're welcome," he said kind of awkwardly, hardly seeing my sister, and staring at me.
With a confused glance at him I followed my sister into the classroom.

There was a hush as we entered, and all eyes turned towards us. Two new kids at the same time. It was a friendly kind of stare though, and three kids came over to shake our hands and introduce themselves. The rest followed, and we were soon struggling with dozens of new names and faces.
Amidst the smiles and greetings our teacher came in as well and introduced himself to us with "Just call me Andy!"

We found our seats, and Andy said, "I understand you're Chief Gallagher's kids?"
I nodded, and Jane said, "Yeah. We're here to stay with him for a while while our Mum is being treated for cancer."
This caused the expected exclamations of, "I'm sorry to hear that," and wishes for her speedy recovery. The usual kind of clumsy things people say when hearing of other people's misfortunes.
I was glad when the class started, and the attention was, mostly, towards Andy and the writings of Toni Morrison.
Resting my head in my right hand, I had the heel of my hand on my cheek, the palm over my ear, and four fingers on my bald fade. My fingers moving ever so slightly on the short stubble that had grown out since Saturday. Relishing it's sandpapery feel and thinking back on the weekend I didn't catch much about Mrs. Morrison I'm afraid.

Dad wasn't as bad as I'd feared. But man was he clumsy. Not physically, but with words he was like an elephant in a china-shop, or however the saying goes.
I almost felt sorry for him at times when he was trying to talk to us. Smiling slightly, I wondered how he'd been himself as a teenager, but was unable to picture it.

We'd avoided each other most of the day yesterday, and after a late breakfast he'd mumbled "Need to go down to the station" and been away for a few hours, giving us all a break from each other. When he came back, we ate dinner while watching a movie together. Mike had been sullen, which didn't help on the atmosphere, but he'd gone to his room after the movie leaving Jane and me alone with Dad.
He smiled at us and asked some awkward questions about school back home. We answered just as awkwardly. But then Jane got the idea we could play cards or something, and it turned out Dad had a deck of cards and Yahtzee in a drawer.
That loosened things up a bit, since we didn't have to try and think of things to say.

The bell rang, and Andy wrapped up by recommending we all actually read some of the books he'd talked about.
I was glad Jane was there with me at first, but we soon ended up chatting with different groups during recess. She slid right in with what I assumed was the popular crew, and I found myself surprisingly comfortable with two girls and a boy whom it turned out were super fun to hang out with.

It struck me that hanging out with Max (Maxine), Harriet and Jerry (Jaroslav) was not a recipe for becoming one of the "cool" kids. But I really didn't care. Max with her undercut, Harriet with blue streaks in her brown hair, and Jerry with just a regular haircut were "the odd ones" in our class, but they were funny, smart and as mentioned, super fun.

We met the boy who'd shown Jane and I to homeroom at lunch as we sat down at a table with several others. His name was Jake and it turned out he was a year above us. We shook, and I thanked him again.
"No problem," he said, "Sorry to see you hooked up with these weirdos!"
"You're one to talk!" Max quipped back, sticking her tongue at him with a grimace. Joking back and forth we had a good laugh.
After lunch we hung out in the schoolyard, and I found myself talking to Jake.

"So, what do you do outside of school?" Jake asked me.
"Back at Mom's not so much," thinking about my ideas of a clean, new, slate, I added "I sort of thought I might try and do some kind of sport, but I really have no idea what I might be good, or not suck as much at."
Jake laughed with me, and said, "You know "sports" is like a dirty word with this group, right?"
Then he grew serious, "What kind of sports are there that might actually be worth doing though?"
"What'cho takin' 'bout?" Harriet dumped down next to me on the bench we'd sat down on.
"Toby says he wants to try out for football," Jake said seriously, and Harriet gave a slight start, before realizing it was a joke.
"I was thinking of doing some kind of sport," I told her, "But I have no idea what I would suck least at."
"Taekwondo!" she said without hesitation, "I started last year, and it's fun!"
As she told us more about it, both Jake and I agreed to ask at home if we could try it out. It sounded okay for a sport I suppose, not least because as Harriet explained, it didn't matter if you sucked. All levels could train together, and according to Harriet, you didn't screw it up for anyone even if you were completely useless.

Mike was waiting by his car as school finished, seeming to be in a slightly better mood than he'd been when we drove there this morning, and we all chatted away about our day.
Dad didn't finish work before five, so we had a few hours alone in the house before he'd be there. Knowing she was dying to find out how our first day of school had been we called Mom and had a talk that lasted almost an hour before she became too tired. It was both great and really sad to see her. She was in treatment already and the meds were taking their toll, making her nauseous and tired.

"Dad?" I came into the living room, as he was watching the news.
"Yeah?"
"Mind if I ask you something?"
"Off course not," he smiled, "Sit down son."
"I was wondering," I began, "This girl in my class, Harriet, is doing Taekwondo, and this other guy Jake and I were thinking we'd give it a try. Would you be okay with that?"
Dad's face split into the biggest grin I'd ever seen on him. "You bet!" he said, "When do you start?"
Almost taken aback I realized I had absolutely no idea but told him I could find out.
As I sent a quick snap to Harriet Dad said, "I used to do Taekwondo you know."
"You did?"
He nodded, "Yeah. I did it before you kids were born, and for a while after your mom and I split up."
"Harriet said she has a yellow belt with a green stripe," I said, not quite knowing what that entailed, "What do you have?"
"Black, second dan," probably, rightly, thinking I didn't have a clue he added, "It's black belt with two gold stripes. The highest is ninth dan black belt, but you'd have to be really active and train 'till you're in your 60-ies or 70-ies to get that. Your friend has probably been at this for about a year to have yellow with green stripe."
My cell gave a soft miaow, and I checked the answering snap from Harriet. "Practice Tuesdays and Thursdays. Are you in?"
As I got up from the couch to chat with my new friends Dad said with a bit of worry in his voice, "What do you think about this virus out of China then? There are even more cases in Italy now, and one in Germany."
He seemed to be speaking sort of to himself, and not really expecting an answer, so I excused myself and went upstairs where I had a hilarious chat with Jake, Harriet, Max and Jerry.
Viruses out of China seemed too distant to care about.

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Friday found me back at P&J's, even though it had only been a week since my touch-up. I was there earlier in the day than usual, secretly wanting to ask them something without people listening in.
And I was in luck. There was just a young student sitting there being finished up by Josh, and Pete asked me to take his chair.

He caped me up and didn't ask what it was to be. Not that he had to.
"You're here earlier than usual?" he commented.
"Yeah," I watched as he started buzzing away the stubble on my right side, "I figured every second week was a bit too long."

It was Josh who brought the subject over to Toby as he was checking his customers hair for imperfections.
"How's Toby doing?"
"He seems to be doing great," I said, adding "He's got new friends, seems happy in school and even started Taekwondo."
This was probably more information than I had volunteered in the barbershop since, well, since forever, I guess.
"Great!" Josh seemed genuinely happy to hear this, but shifted his focus back to his own customer again as he began using the straight razor to clean up the tiny hairs around the hair line.

I thought about having driven Toby and his friend Jake to practice Tuesday and Thursday.
On Tuesday I'd just dropped them off, thinking a 15-year-old doesn't want his dad following him in when he starts something new with his friends. But after Toby had passed on greetings from Mike, their trainer, I asked the boys on Thursday if it was okay if I came in with them to say hi. If it was not okay, they were too timid to say that it wasn't.
Mike and I saw each other around town from time to time, but it was nice seeing him in the gym again and we just had a brief chat before the class began.
Not wanting to embarrass Tobes I slunk off and headed home, since Jake's Mom was picking them up later.
Mike had hinted that I should start again, but that would have to wait if it was to happen. I was rusty to say it mildly, and there was the issue of not getting in Toby's way here.

"Toby looked really good with that haircut!" Pete commented as Josh had finished off with his customer, and settled down in his own chair to watch as Pete finished my deck and lathered me up.
"Yeah," I sat with my own thoughts for a bit longer, but really wanting to ask my question I started with an "Eh...", looking at Pete in the mirror.
"Do you think he might be, uh" I felt myself going red, and continued, "Uh, like you?"
"Like us? Or like me?" Pete asked, obviously being difficult on purpose.
"Uh, like you. Both." I was really blushing now. It always shows on my ears, and they were bright red in the mirror. No less so in contrast to the white foam.
"Like barbers you mean?" Pete had a frown between his eyes, "No, I don't think so. He's a regular kid in Junior High is what he is!"
I closed my mouth and nodded. That was awkward.

"It's not like we actually have a "gay-dar" you know Chief." Pete said suddenly, sounding as annoyed as he looked.
"I do!" Josh piped in. Unlike his partner he didn't seem offended by my questions.
"So, what does your gay-dar tell you?" I asked eagerly, inwardly feeling absurdly grateful to Josh for making this easier.
"I think that incredibly cute son of yours might be, and he might not be. Possibly, he doesn't know for sure himself even."
"The big question Chief, is what are you going to do about it, if he is?" Josh added.
Pete stopped scraping away the foam, as they both studied me.

They had to wait a few seconds before I answered, "Not a whole lot, I guess."
I looked at them both in the mirror, and said, "It is what it is, right? Whichever way that may be."
"That about sums it up. Are you okay with that though Chief? Whichever way that may be?" Josh asked.
looking them both in the eyes, in turn in the mirror, I said, "Yeah, I am."
They seemed quite satisfied with this.

Josh continued, "The next question is, does Tobias know that?"
I sat in deep thought, as Pete applied lather a second time, to shave against the grain this time. That was a good question.
As I felt the smooth motion of the razor against the skin, I felt inadequate. That's a word, and a feeling, I don't often think about, and I didn't like thinking about it now.
"How the f*** do I find that out?" I asked, exasperated. Adding, "And do I find out? Or do I just leave it?"

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