Family Affair

Aaron was happy.

Nowadays, it was easy to be happy.

Ben loved him, their son was healthy, and a stretch of perfect weather was keeping the garden green. The clouds of the past had parted, leaving only painless scars and faint memories.

Aaron was happy.

Until someone dropped a package at his door.

Until the clouds started to gather again.

——————————————————————————————————————————

That day started like the hundreds before it. Ben woke up first, they said their goodbyes, and Aaron waved to him through the living room window as he drove off for his shift at the hospital. Alex was playing with toy cars on the floor. He was old enough to know his daddy left every day, but still young enough to be distracted from that fact with a bucket of secondhand toys in mere minutes.

Aaron sat on the couch, watching Alex play and trying not to flash back to himself at that age. This child’s life was entirely carefree. When he was older, he’d officially meet his birth mother. He’d never be hit, never be ignored. He wouldn’t know the skull-deep smell of misery that came with being lonely.

He’d go to school like everyone else. He’d struggle at math, maybe grasping it later on and maybe never quite getting the hang of it.

The only pain in Alex’s life would come from scraped knees and rejected dates.

When Aaron was two, he hadn’t had any of this. Thank God he couldn’t remember that far back. Still, he remembered his childhood; how his father would look at him with disappointment, with contempt, how he’d never understood why he and his siblings were kept locked away.

Aaron remembered the cult.

He had to pinch himself to bring himself back to reality. Alex was bored with the little cars now.

“Da!” He tugged on Aaron’s pant leg. “Ou-side, please?”

“Outside?”

“Yeah!”

“Sure, Buddy!”

Alex gave Aaron endless tasks to focus on. Raising a two-year-old didn’t leave one with time to feel sorry for one’s self. There were pajamas to switch out for regular clothes, shoes to tie, hair to straighten. A tiny life relied on Aaron’s undivided attention, at least for now.

“Which shirt, Lex? Dinosaurs?”

“Yeah!!”

Ben had lost that bet. He, Aaron, and Natalie (Alex’s birth mother), and each placed bets on what Alex’s first phase would be. Ben had said teddy bears, Natalie had chosen ducks. Aaron had suspected Alex would be a dinosaur kid. With how strong Natalie reported his kicks to be, there was no question. Thus, the boy’s room had slowly become Jurassic Park: dinosaur sheets, dinosaur wallpaper, big stuffed t-rex courtesy of Ben’s parents. This bedroom was every little boy’s dream.

“Da?”

“Hm?” Aaron realized he’d zoned again. Twice in one day? That wasn’t a good sign.

Thankfully, he managed to stay present after that. Alex wanted to try and tie his own shoes. The attempt was unsuccessful, though Aaron couldn’t help but be impressive at the knot that formed. Five minutes and one mini tantrum over a sweat shirt later, Father and Son were out in the back yard. Both were disappointed at the weather. What had been so lovely and temperate the other day was now cold and drizzly. Alex found enough mud to keep him busy, and Aaron took a seat on the back steps.

Nearby, a cat bird voiced its displeasure at the company.

Alex found something on the ground and brought it over; exhibiting more care than most boys his age when he handed Aaron a soggy brown leaf.

“What’s this, Kiddo?”

“What’s this?”

Aaron smiled. Alex wasn’t the best speaker yet, so he took his cues from his fathers. “Sit,” Aaron moved over to let his son plop down beside him, “let me show you. See these things? They move water through the leaf so it doesn’t get thirsty.”

“Firsty?”

“They’re veins, Pal. Here,” Aaron set the leaf aside and held out his hand, letting Alex run a cautious finger along the blue lines under his skin, “these are MY veins.” He took Alex’s hand, “These are yours.”

“You got…veins, Da?”

“We both do. They keep us alive. I think your daddy knows more about them than I do.”

“Daddy?”

“He works with veins a lot. When people are sick or hurt, he takes care of them.”

Ben had been a student when they met; top of his class, hard working, dedicated. Aaron mused that that natural proclivity to help and heal was what drew Ben to him; along with a passion for fixing broken things.

No, Ben would remind him, he wasn’t broken. Bashed against the rocks, bruised into near-insanity, not broken.

The cult had tried…oh, how they’d tried. With Aaron’s father at the head, they’d had free reign to terrorize. Aaron had done his best to hang back. If he could make it to Eighteen without a body count, he could leave and never come back.

Eighteen had come and gone with no avenue for escape.

Jesus, he’d been in his Twenties by the time he’d had the courage…he’d walked away, not excepting to last very long on his own; then this new person had come into his life.

If Ben hadn’t noticed, hadn’t cared enough, or simply lost patience…

Aaron shuddered, wrapping an arm around Alex and holding him close. Alex was still fascinated by the veins on his hand. Thank God the kid found wonder so easily. His mind was a playground of discovery and curiosity. He almost never noticed when Aaron was having an episode.

Almost never.

Someone was ringing the doorbell. Let them come back later, he was playing with his son.

“Who’s der?” Alex’s little voice sang softly. He looked up at Aaron, expectantly; almost like he was saying “Dad, open the door!”

“We aren’t expecting a visitor, Buddy.” Aaron explained. “We don’t open the door for strangers.”

“Wha if…we know dem?”

“Aunt Maura would call first. Uncle Tay’s out of town right now.”

Alex thought this over. “Lucky?”

Aaron chuckled. “Lucky doesn’t use the doorbell, Alex.”

“Oh…Ma!”

Damn, the kid had a good point. Natalie was usually at work right now; still, there could be an emergency. She might need something.

Fine. He’d see who was at the door.

Aaron picked Alex up and carried him inside, stopping to leave both their shoes on the mat. Lex was a mud expert, so the mud on his clothes would inevitably end up SOMEWHERE. The least Aaron could do was try and save the kitchen floor.

Alex made a bee line for the door as soon as he was set down. Aaron hurried after him, silently panicking. Whoever was here had only rung once, and if the looming sense of dread in the pit of his stomach was any indication, he didn’t want this visitor setting eyes on his child. “No running in the house, Bud!” Aaron chided, scooping Alex into his arms. The toddler immediately started squirming to get down. It hurt Aaron’s heart a little to restrict him like this.

That was the duty of a parent: to keep one’s child safe from monsters.

Just because his own father had failed, that didn’t mean Aaron would.

A quick look through the window…no-one. But had that car always been parked across the street?

“Lex,” Aaron relented, “I’m going to set you down. Go play in your room, okay?”

“Wha’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Buddy. I’ll be in in a little while. Go play in your room, don’t answer the phone or the door until I get back. Promise?”

“Promise.”

The kid was as good as his word, he took off like a shot to his room. Aaron took a breath, grabbed his keys, and stepped outside; locking the door behind him. The front porch was vacant. Every sense in his body was turned up to the highest setting; from the feeling of the welcome mat’s rough material through his socks to the bright red of the strange car’s paint; and everywhere…silence.

The cat bird called out again, mocking him with its laugh-like cry. Aaron marched toward the car. As soon as he’d taken one step too many, whoever was driving revved the engine.

They sped off before he could see who they were. No license plates.

Aaron felt something inside himself break. They’d invaded the last quiet safe haven in his life.

They knew…how much did they know?!

Aaron forced himself to turn around and return to the house. Alex needed him. There was still so much to get done that day; chores to complete, meals to prepare for. Those…people…wouldn’t destroy this for him. They wouldn’t drive Aaron away from his family; away from his son. Not today.

But…then….where had that brown package come from?

Aaron had felt the mat under his feet, he’d SEEN the empty front porch, where had that package come from?!

Against his better judgement, he approached it. No postage, nothing written, simple brown paper.

In Aaron’s pocket, his cell phone buzzed with an incoming text message from an unknown number.

A GIFT FOR MY GRANDSON. SEE YOU SOON, KID.