Telephone

My mother called Excitement today. We have to call him three times a week to let him talk to Boo. Of course, Boo is 11 months and 3 weeks old, so the phone to him is just another toy that makes noise. He has yet to realize that there is someone on the other end of the phone. He certainly doesn’t recognize the voice as his father. Still, we are legally obligated to call and let Excitement say: “Why won’t he talk? I can’t hear him!”, to which we have to respond, “If you would just be quiet for a minute, he is talking right now!” for 15 minutes, three times a week.

Excitement hasn’t seen Boo in 7 weeks. It’s not that he hasn’t had the opportunity. He has 1st, 3rd and 5th Friday-Sunday with Boo, all he has to do is meet us halfway between our houses and pick him up, but every week he’s found a new reason not to come: His parents couldn’t drive him one week. The next week he didn’t have money for a bus ticket. Then he had surgery on his arm, which was a perfectly good arm, but the surgery allowed him to get a new prescription of narcotic pain medication and he really, really needed his narcotic pain medication. Then he couldn’t lift Boo because of the surgery on his arm. The excuses go on and on.

After 5 weeks of having only 15 minutes of contact with Boo, Excitement began saying he missed him and wanted to pick him up for a weekend, but he couldn’t take care of him because his arm had just been operated on. Excitement said perhaps his new girlfriend could take care of Boo for him. I reminded him that Boo was only 11 months old and at this point Boo most likely didn’t even know who Excitement was, much less Excitement’s new girlfriend whom he has never met. Boo was already going through separation anxiety. To take him away from his home and familiar faces for three days would just be traumatic. I suggested that we meet somewhere and let them visit for a couple hours on the next few weekends he had custody before he decided to take him home for the weekend. Excitement agreed that was probably best.

Tomorrow would be the beginning of Excitement’s weekend with Boo, but he has been saying for the past two weeks that he didn’t plan to take it. Then tonight, when we called to let him talk to Boo, he dropped the bomb.

“My sister is in town,” Excitement said, his words slurring slightly, “And she wants to see Boo. She’s going to drive me to the halfway point and we’re going to take him home for the weekend. It will be perfect. She can take care of Boo for me and I will get to see him again.”

“You can’t take him!” my mother blurted out. “He doesn’t even know who you are!”
 “I can take him if I want to take him. He’s my son and this is my time with him.” Excitement coolly replied.

“But what happened to letting him get to know you again? He’ll be scared if you just take him when he doesn’t remember you!”