CHAPTER SIX: Families Are Strange

What would he say to her? Would it be okay to hug her? What would she think of Maude, and would Maude like her enough to want to let him see her again?

The last thing Jim expected was that his mother would embrace Maude first, then turn to him and take him by the shoulders. "Oh Jimmy! You've grown so much! How's Stevie? And Ezra - are you boys getting along?"

"Yeah," he stammered, finally being pulled close by his mother. "We're all doing fine."

"Great!" Mary Margaret exclaimed.

"I was thinking we'd take your mother shopping," said Maude. "Mare's going away this weekend, down to San Francisco with a quote-friend-unquote, and she absolutely needs something less frumpy." And the women were laughing together now.

"You KNOW each other?" Jim finally managed.

"Of course we do, Hon," said Maude. "Now let's get going!"

So in between stores Jim filled Mary Margaret in about the details of his life. The unimportant stuff. There was no chance, no space for real conversation, for the almost-wordless communication that he and is mother had always seemed to share. Two hours later, they were dropping Mary Margaret off at her place; he stared back at her as she entered her building.

"I'm sorry I couldn't let you two talk privately," said Maude. "I promised your father."

"I might as well have not even have seen her."

"Ridiculous," said Maude. "You'll realize in time that I'm right."

"And you lied to my father. How do you know her, anyway?"

"Long story, kiddo," said Maude. "And your father never asked if I knew her or not, so I couldn't have lied to him. Anyway, doesn't she look marvelous? I think she has a good shot at happiness with Stan McDonald."

"Happiness?"

"She's been very lonely for a very long time. Your father hasn't made life easy for her."

"I thought you loved Dad."

"I'm fond of them both," said Maude with a laugh. "It's something I don't expect a boy your age to understand." She sobered. "I don't have to tell you that it would be best for all of us if William doesn't know that Mary Margaret and myself are acquainted."

Pulled into another lie. And Maude seemed to be getting a kick out of it, maybe just for the sake of hiding something from William. But, he wasn't responsible...

Maude dropped Jim off at home, then continued on to who-knew-where. The house was mostly quiet, Ezra and Stevie probably still at baseball practice and Sally wherever she went on her day off, but his father's presence was impossible to miss.

"I tell you, you should SEE the boy!" William was saying, presumably into the phone in his study. "You'd never think he was only seven! Playing like a nine-year-old, at least!"

It was unusual to hear his father say anything positive about either him or Stevie unless he was trying to, well, sell them in some manner. He closed the front door carefully, to keep his presence from being detected, and continued to listen.

"Well, I'm more relieved that his marks are improving," came Grace's phone-altered voice. Since his dad had gotten together with Maude, some of the tension had left the relationship between his father and stepmother.

"It's the competition this kid of Maude is giving the boys," said William. "He's a complete fairy, let me tell you, but he's a smart one, and Stevie doesn't want to be outshone. Ez - that's the kid's name - he's also been trying his hand at baseball, though I don't think he ever touched a bat before he and his mother moved in. Anyway, there's no way Stevie would let a kid like that best him at sports, and it's done Stevie nothing but good."

"Fairy, you say? I'm not so comfortable with the influence this boy might be having on Stevie."

William laughed. "Relax, Gracie, he's only nine, and Stevie could twist him in half. And Jimmy's around too."

"Well, okay," said Grace. "How is James doing, anyway?"

"Well, the business last fall, it hit him hard, you know that. I've just been giving him his space."

"That's what I'd do," said Grace. "His grades are still good?"

"As good as ever," said William. "I frankly wouldn't want them to be any better. Being a bookworm never got anyone anywhere in the world."

Grace laughed, a crackle over the line. "Well, I'm trying to prove that one wrong."

William laughed too. "Of course, I can't let him drift like this for forever. I'm going to have to light a fire under his rear one of these days."

"Something I'm sure you'll have no problem doing, when the time's right," said Grace.

Outside, Jim now heard the chatter of young voices, accompanied by the bump-bump-bump of a bat being dragged along the sidewalk. William heard too, and quickly ended his conversation with Grace after confirming the logistics of Stevie's next weekend visit with her in Seattle.

The boys burst into the house and started to regale Jim - how Ezra had been asked by the coach to demonstrate bunting, how Stevie might be starting at shortstop. Jim had to laugh and tousle both their heads.

He couldn't get his father's comments about Ezra out of his mind, though. What did 'fairy' mean? And, whatever it meant, how was it dangerous to Stevie? What right did his dad have to say things against Ezra, anyway? Didn't he love Maude, and didn't that mean he had to love Ezra?

Ezra slipped into his room later, while he was working on his model of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. He'd begun it a year before, then put it aside after Grace had given him a few Apollo-related models for his birthday. Those done, he was ready for a bigger project again.

"Is that a moon base?" Ezra asked.

"It's an Air Force facility in Colorado," said Jim. "They built it inside a mountain. There's not a lot available publicly about what's inside, but I thought it would be neat if I could get some basic plumbing going in, and make the air circulation system work. After I get the inside finished, I'm going to make a shell out of clay. It should look pretty realistic when I'm all done."

"Neat," said Ezra.

"Yeah," said Jim. "I'm only putting in a few floors, to keep the scale reasonable. I'm betting they have more like 20 or 30."

"Wow. You could hide anything in a place like that."

Jim nodded. "Even maybe even a time machine, or aliens, or something."

"I thought the government kept all that stuff in New Mexico or Nevada."

"Naw, those places are too far from cities. Cheyenne Mountain's near Colorado Springs. Much easier logistically."

Ezra laughed. "You know, I can see your dad saying the exact same thing."

Jim paused, then jabbed a tricky piece in with a little more force than was needed, maybe. "I'm NOTHING like him," he said.

"Well, not in some ways," said Ezra, "but you both like order, and you both have a lot of discipline and expect everyone else to, too. It amazes me that your dad and my mom have lasted so long."

"You make it sound like you expect them to break up, or something."

"Noooo... it's not like I've seen anything. But my mother never stays with anyone very long. She's really bad at sticking with plans all the way through."

"Plans?"

Suddenly, Ezra realized that he was scarily close to confessing the real reason behind Maude's interest in William. But nobody would benefit from the truth.

His next thought was that Jim was probably picking up on his unease at his near-slipup. "Never mind. There are stories I could tell, though," he said, hoping that would be enough cover. Of course it would be, he quickly assured himself. Jim just didn't look for deceit in people.

"I think that they're in love," said Jim. Except... he looked closely at Ezra. What had his father called him?

But Ezra, as was often the case, seemed to know what he was going to say before he'd even formed the thought. "Your dad doesn't like me much," he said.

"Yes he does!" was Jim's automatic reply.

"Now I know you know something specific," said Ezra with a laugh. "Did you overhear something, or did he talk to you directly?"

"He, uh... Ezra, what's a fairy?"

"A FAIRY? William J. Ellison called me a FAIRY?" Ezra stood back, hands on hips, looking just like his social studies teacher, Mr. Harris. The next instant, before Jim knew how to react, Ezra had dropped onto the bed and was - what? - giggling into his hands.

"My oh my," he said. "Your father has obviously never lived in San Francisco OR New Orleans."

"Uh... I don't know..."

"I've lived both places, just a month in Cisco but with my grandparents in the French quarter off and on all my life. Fairy? I can do that, if you think it would make him happy. Do you think it would?"

"I don't know... I don't think you'd better..."

"Never mind," said Ezra, wiping his eyes on his t-shirt's upper sleeve. "I guess your dad doesn't have a wide range of slots to stick people in, and just took a stab. It's okay."

"Ummm... is it safe to say you don't like my dad?"

"YOU I like," said Ezra. "Stevie too, though I don't think he's mature enough for what I'd consider friendship. William and Maude... well, it's my considered opinion that they deserve each other."

"But your mom dotes on you!" Well, most of the time.

"Jim, you KNOW that's an act, don't you? You have to have picked up on things, like when she's giving me instructions or passing me notes on my demeanor?"

Jim shook his head. "I try not to spy on people."

Ezra laughed again. "Well, it's a good thing you're the kid with super powers, not me!" he said. "I'd be in everyone's business."

"It's not... I don't think I've ever seen anything, or heard or smelled or tasted or felt anything that you couldn't have, that did me any good."

"REALLY? Never?" Ezra had figured that Jim's abilities had their downside, but had never guessed that Jim might consider them a liability over-all.

"Never," said Jim. "I mean, I guess I could cheat on tests or something, but I never would, and you don't need extra good sight or hearing to do that anyway. Kids cheat all the time. And sometimes I do, you know, those tricks at school, but being able to fart on key gets more respect."

"Well, Sam Johnson IS mighty talented in that regard," nodded Ezra, having a deep appreciation for the particular talents of the kid Jim was referring to.

"If I could wake up tomorrow and not have super-anything, I'd be happier," said Jim. Did he really mean it? It was strange to be talking so openly about both his feelings and his senses.

"Well, you might be really glad you have them someday," said Ezra.

"So how do you think your boy's doing?" asked Maude as Mary Margaret poured hot water on their bags of Lipton.

"Oh, he's grown so much!" said Mary Margaret. "And changed so much! Grown up. I hardly knew what to say to him."

"Well, you two will be able to get better acquainted soon enough," said Maude. "I'll give a very positive report to William.

"Thanks!" said Mary Margaret with a giggle. "I feel so, I don't know, sneaky I guess!"

"Do you like it?"

"Yes!" said Mary Margaret. "Deceiving William doesn't bother me in the least."

"You're growing up yourself, Hon," said Maude. If only she could effect the same changes in young Jimmy! With each passing week, though, the possibility of figuring out some use for the boy wonder seemed more and more remote.

William stood outside Stevie's door for a moment - silence - then walked softly the few steps to Jimmy's door. Again, all signs were that Jimmy was asleep, but he didn't have great confidence in his ability to tell with his older son.

Well, he'd have to assume that Jim wasn't being devious.

In the master suite, Maude greeted him in one of her delicious red things. Yes, he indeed was the luckiest man on the planet.

Well, business first. "How did today go?" he asked.

"Today?" Maude looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled. "Oh, you mean our little get-together with Mary Margaret. It went fine."

She went back to braiding her long, blond hair for the night.

"So... she didn't, you know, try to do anything inappropriate?"

Maude laughed. "I don't think the woman would know the meaning of the word. And, in front of her son??"

"I mean - did they talk, at all, about that mess last fall?"

"Poor Karl Heydash's murder? No, it didn't come up. But I don't imagine either of them would risk anything just now, do you?"

"Well, no, I suppose not..."

"You don't understand the ties a woman feels toward her children, darling," said Maude. "I'm sure Mary Margaret knows what's best for her son, and won't do anything to jeopardize your good will."

"She could try to take him from me."

"Hmmm... no, I really can't see her doing that. She mentioned she's dating someone, and, I have found, well, that having the custody of a child can really destroy a relationship before it gets off the ground."

William sat next to her on the bed and drew her close. "I think being a mother makes you all-the-more attractive, darling," he said.

TBC