Why 2012 Will Be Better Than 2011

Why 2012 Will Be Better Than 2011

"2012 will be better. I promise." Titus spoke with passion into his phone's speaker as he tried to get his wife Jessica to have a date with him.

"Cariño," Jessica said, calling him by his pet name, "I'm over you that way. I love you, but not like that. You and I are finished as a couple."

In his cottage, Titus rubbed his eyes furiously. He gave his phone a dirty look. "At least let me come over for lunch. Let me see Daniel."

"It's not your day to see him and I am too busy to cook for you."

Titus sighed. Quiet, he asked, "Is he there? Alex? Is he at your place?"

There was silence on the other end. Of course, that bastard was there. "Did he spend the night?" Titus asked.

"Yes and yes," Jessica said with exasperation in her voice.

Titus looked at his phone as if it had instantly transformed into a vile slimy object. He swallowed dry. He didn't want to hear her voice anymore. Quickly, he said into the phone without holding it to his ear, "Have Daniel ready for me tomorrow morning at nine." He hung up.

The next day, Titus showed up at Jessica's condo exactly at nine am. Daniel was ready for him. The toddler jumped off the sofa and ran to him. "Daddy." He looked up as he hugged Titus' legs. Titus picked him up. He turned to Jessica who was still in pajamas.

"At what time do you want me to bring him back?" Titus asked.

Jessica bit her lips. She asked quietly, "Can you stay with him over night?"

"Sure. I keep him as long as you'll let me have him."

She shook her head. "Not keep him. Stay here with him over night."

Titus cocked his head. "What's going on?"

"I have my first night shift. If you can't stay, I have to bring him to my parents." She tugged on her pajama and said, "I'm going to try and sleep ahead, if I can."

Titus smiled. He stepped close to her and pulled her into a one-armed hug. He kissed the top of her head. "I'll be here with Daniel when you come home."

Titus and Daniel drove to Wilshire Boulevard and spent a couple of hours at the Zimmer Children's Museum. Daniel got hungry and Titus took him to the vegan fast food restaurant close to the La Brea Tar Pits. Daniel didn't like the alfalfa sprouts. "What is this?" he asked as he held up a handful of them. "Is this goblin hair?"

Titus laughed snorting. He took the curly, grassy mass from Daniel's fingers and dropped in on his own plate. "No, it's healthy food. That's why it has to look gross."

Daniel looked at him with big questioning eyes and asked in his slow cadence, "Daddy, why don't you live with Mommy? At nursery school, all the mommies live with a daddy."

The question caught Titus unprepared. "Daddy was a bad boy, Daniel. Now I'm punished." He smiled crookedly at his little boy. "I have to do a lot better for Mommy to let me live with you and her." A thought crossed his mind. "Have you asked Mommy why we don't live together?"

Daniel looked him square in the eyes and said, "Mommy says you are like a child." Daniel frowned and grabbed his hair above his forehead. He tugged on it a couple of times, thinking. "I don't know why she says that. You are bigger than she is. Children are smaller than mommies." His tongue caught on 'children' and it took him effort to enunciate the long word.

He didn't like that answer, so Titus changed the subject. "You want to go swimming in my pool?"

Daniel nodded. He fell asleep on the drive to Venice Beach, so Titus carried the sleeping boy into his cottage. He put him on the sofa. Realizing that the diaper might leak on his leather couch, Titus made a nest of blankets on the floor for him and carefully moved him.

He looked at his sleeping child. 'I don't even have a proper spot for him to take a nap. I've gone almost three years without making any changes to my life.' He stretched out on the floor next to Daniel and stared at the ceiling. A light, dream filled slumber came over him. In his dream, he heard his birthmother yell at his father. His father's face was a blur of dark brown skin, a stark contrast to his pale, blond mother. Ma, his adoptive mother, shook a condemning finger at him. Titus woke up with a start. His eyes opened and he felt sweaty. Daniel lay in peaceful slumber next to him.

Titus sat up and put his face in his hands. Is this how Daniel would remember him? Neglectful, selfish, only showing up when he felt like it. He tenderly stoked his son's curls. "History won't repeat itself. When you are a grown man, you are going to know my face," he whispered.

When Jessica came home from her first night shift, Titus was in her kitchen. He said, "Go wash up. Breakfast is ready."

She threw him a weary gaze. He pulled the chair out for her and slipped it under her as she sat down as a waiter in a four star restaurant would do. He presented her with a cup of herbal tisane, toast, scrambled eggs, and freshly cut up apple. She bit into the toast but made a face at the tisane. "Chamomile? I need coffee. Lots of it."

Titus sat down across from her and smiled. "You need to take a nap."

"Daniel will wake up any minute."

"I know." Titus showed her Daniel's favorite dish in the shape of a face, decorated with triangle sandwiches for cheeks and blueberries for eyes. "I'm staying here today."

"Why?"

"Because I promised that 2012 will be better than 2011."

1000 words