Night Watch, Part 21

As David walked through the door of his house, he heard conversation and the clatter of dishes coming from the kitchen. Among the voices, he picked out those of Graphite and Olivia. But he hardly had time to process this when a soft, fleshy projectile crashed into his legs. It was Tony, who announced David's arrival with a loud "Dad!"

David lifted Tony from the floor with a sweeping motion and carried him to the sofa. Tony squealed with delight. Buddy watched from an armchair as David sat with Tony on his knees.

"He's been waiting for you like a loyal puppy dog," said Buddy.

"I'm sure he wants to tell me all about his sleepover," said David.

David marveled, as he did every day, at how fast his son was growing up. At three years and a few months old he had bright, brown eyes and a round face with cheeks that puffed out when he laughed. His forehead was high and bright, with soft, sweet-smelling skin. It seemed to David that Tony was becoming firmer and more boy-like by the day, his baby fat disappearing rapidly from his stomach and thighs. In the fall he would be in preschool, looking even more grown up.

"What did you have for breakfast?" David asked him.

"Kiss and 'eerios," said Tony with his customary garbled syllables.

"What did he say?" asked Buddy, who was not around Tony often enough to learn his latest vocabulary.

"Kix and Cheerios. He likes to combine breakfast cereals. Did you have raisins?"

Tony nodded happily. He loved raisins in his cereal.

"Did you play with Ben?" asked David. Ben was the two-year-old son of the Scotts, the family down the street with whom Tony had spent the night while Angela was in labor.

"He took a little 'nooze," said Tony.

"A what?" asked Buddy.

"He leaves off certain 'S' sounds, so 'nooze is really snooze," said David.

"The baby is in Mommy," said Tony patting his own stomach with an air of seriousness.

"Thank you for that report. How is she feeling?" asked David.

"Mommy's tired."

"Ah, yes, I'm sure she is. What do you want to do today?"

Tony raised both hands into the air. "Playground!"

David looked at Buddy. "He loves hanging from the bars."

"Sounds like fun," said Buddy, sitting forward in his chair. "Tony, would you like me to take you to the playground?"

Tony moved his head up and down very energetically.

"I would say that's a yes," said David. He looked up as Angela entered the room. "I heard you were sleepy," he said to her as she bent to kiss him.

"Our son is very observant. I couldn't hide it," she said.

"Would you like to sit?" David started to shift over.

"No, if I sit down I won't get up," she said.

"Your Dad's going to take Tony to the playground. Why don't you take a nap?"

"Would that be okay? I need some rest. Nothing is happening with this baby. It's so discouraging. I feel like I'm going to be pregnant forever."

"Tonight," assured Tony. David laughed; Tony was repeating what David had said several times yesterday, when he felt certain that last night was going to be it.

"Thank you, sweetie," said Angela. She leaned against them and pulled Tony's head against her hip. Her enormous stomach protruded in front of David. He laid a hand on it and instantly felt the baby kick.

"Wow," he said.

"Yeah, wow is right," she said.

David turned his ear toward the kitchen, where he heard Graphite, Olivia and Natalie in conversation. "Sounds like a party in there," he said.

"Here, or in the kitchen?" said Angela, touching her stomach.

"I'm glad you still have your sense of humor, but I meant the kitchen," said David.

"That Graphite can be Mr. Social Butterfly when he wants to. He's talking Olivia's ear off, and that's pretty hard to do," Angela said, shaking her head in wonder.

David chuckled. He eased Tony off his lap and stood up. Tony rushed to the waiting arms of his grandfather. Natalie came into the room. "Are we making plans?"

"Tony and I are going to the playground," said Buddy proudly.

"And Angela's going to bed," said David.

Angela shrugged. "Orders from my husband. What can I say?"

"In that case I may do a little shopping. I don't want to run out of food, especially if we'll be having guests drop in," said Natalie.

"I can take care of that," said David.

"Don't you dare," said Angela. "Olivia's enjoying herself."

"But my night shift employee needs his sleep," said David.

"I'm sure he doesn't need you to micromanage his schedule," said Angela.

"Me, a micromanager? How did that rumor get started?"

Angela smiled. "I do talk to the employees, you know."

It seemed to David that Angela now had a part in every aspect of his life. It hadn't always been that way. It the early years of their marriage he had had a job working ten hours a day at a technical firm in Reston, Virginia. It took David an hour to get there in the morning and two hours to get home. He discovered that when you're gone from home thirteen hours a day you have no idea what's going on. But it didn't matter much because Angela had a full time job as an accountant for a nonprofit in Alexandria and was gone all day herself. Their house sat empty on weekdays until they came home in the evening, ate the simplest meal they could think of, and went to bed so they could get up early and start all over again. They lived two separate lives, except for the holiday season when David would meet Angela's office mates at a party, and Angela would meet David's.

After a few years on that schedule, David found a position with a shorter commute and better hours. Then Tony was born and Angela found that she was able to keep her accounting job on a part time basis and work from home. Soon, though, David started getting the bug to start his own company, and Angela was willing to support it because she wanted to apply her accounting skills to their own business instead of someone else's. Slowly, their lives became completely intertwined with family, business and home life. They had gone from one extreme to the other: from seeing little of each other to becoming constant companions. He ran the technical aspects of their fledging software company; she did the books and was a master at invoicing. If it weren't for her they would not be making any money, because David knew he was not disciplined about billing clients. They raised Tony together and were about to have another one. David no longer had his own life outside of the home. Sometimes their office space was an extension of their living room, with Tony crawling on the floor and toys scattered about. It was yet another reason why Graphite worked at night. David appreciated his desire for solitude. It was the one thing he didn't get any more.

Angela, as usual, seemed to read his mind. "How are you holding up?" she asked.

"Maybe I'll catch a catnap on the backroom sofa," he said.

"That's not what I mean."

"I know. I was dodging the point."

"As usual. Well?"

"I'm a little overwhelmed. Do we need a bigger house?"

"Yes, but we probably won't qualify for a mortgage for another year unless one of us goes back to full time employment," she said.

He raised his hand. "Me. Can I? Huh? Please let me go to work."

"Right. You'd be miserable in two weeks. David, you're a homebody and you know it."

He sighed. "I know, but I also need my space."

"You'll get your space. Just be patient. This fall, Tony will be in half-day preschool and I'll be at home nursing this one if he ever comes. So you can disappear to your little office and bury yourself in computer code."

David's eyes brightened. "You make it sound so lovely. But wait a minute, are you back to calling it a he?"

She patted her stomach. "He's already behaving like a typical man: doesn't show up on time and doesn't call."

Natalie said, "Speaking of showing up, aren't your family members coming, David?"

"My parents are driving up now, and my sister is flying out from Seattle today," he said.

"Oh my gosh, I'd better shop for a crowd," said Natalie, pulling a pad of paper and a pencil from her purse.

Buddy stood up with Tony. "Sounds like we'd better go to the playground, Tony."

"Playground!"

Angela looked at David. "Cheers. I'm off to bed."

"I'll hold down the fort."

"There's no need to hold down anything. Just relax and go with the flow," said Angela.

"I don't know how to do that."

"It's time you learned."